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| Two death-row inmates granted new hearings |
| By Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Published: 12/23/2004 |
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has granted new hearings to two men convicted of separate murders in Philadelphia to determine whether their death sentences should be set aside. In both cases, the question to be reviewed is whether defense lawyers failed to effectively represent the men at their sentencings. In one case, Kevin Hughes, 42, was convicted of sexually assaulting and strangling 9-year-old Rochelle Graham in 1979 inside a vacant North Philadelphia house and setting her body ablaze in an attempt to cover his crime. Hughes, who was 16 at the time, confessed to the crime. A jury convicted him of murder and other crimes and sentenced him to die in 1981. Execution has been delayed during a long string of appeals. The Supreme Court said in a ruling Monday that Hughes suffered from mental illness - a factor that his lawyer, Nino Tinari, did not argue as a mitigating circumstance when the jury was weighing Hughes' sentence. The court ordered an evidentiary hearing to determine why Tinari did not make that argument and whether his decision not to do so was reasonable. The second case is that of William Gribble, 40, convicted of the 1992 robbery, murder and dismemberment of Eleftherios Eleftheriou, a Kensington pizza-shop owner. Gribble was convicted in 1993. A judge sentenced him to death. Gribble contends that his lawyer, Charles Mirarchi 3d, was ineffective in allowing him to be sentenced by a judge rather than a jury. The court ordered an evidentiary hearing on that point. |
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