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| Judge Grants New Trial for Fugitive |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/26/2001 |
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A judge granted a new trial last week for Ira Einhorn, a onetime hippie guru and longtime fugitive convicted in absentia in the 1977 murder of his girlfriend. Einhorn, 61, jumped bail and fled the United States in 1981, shortly before he was scheduled for trial in Pennsylvania. He was convicted in absentia in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Holly Maddux, whose mummified remains were found stuffed in a steamer trunk in the couple's Philadelphia apartment 18 months after Einhorn said she went to the store and never returned. In 1998, Pennsylvania passed a law providing for a retrial upon his request. The unprecedented move was made to satisfy a French requirement that foreign nationals not be extradited based on trials in absentia. Einhorn was returned to the United States in July after a European court refused to halt his extradition from France, effectively ending two decades of flight for the former anti-war activist, one-time mayoral candidate and self-described 'planetary enzyme.' Einhorn maintains he was framed for the murder by the CIA after he uncovered secret mind-control weapon experiments. U.S. officials had to assure French authorities that Einhorn would not be eligible for the death penalty in his new trial because capital punishment was not legal in Pennsylvania when Maddux was killed. European Union countries generally refuse to extradite suspects who face the death penalty. |
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