Counsel pursuing stay of execution
One day after Gov. Ed Rendell issued a death warrant for a Uniontown man, his attorneys have asked a federal court judge to stay his execution. In papers filed Thursday before in Pittsburgh’s Western District Court, the attorneys representing Mark D. Edwards Jr. asked a judge to allow him to pursue the federal appeal of his conviction and sentence that was initiated in May.
In 2004, a Fayette County jury sentenced Edwards, 24, to death for killing Larry Bobish Sr., his wife, Joanne, and their daughter, Krystal on April 14, 2002.
On Wednesday, Rendell signed a warrant fixing Edwards’ date of death for Sept. 19.
Krystal Bobish was pregnant at the time, and Edwards also was convicted of killing her unborn fetus.
Edwards also was convicted of trying to kill the Bobish’s son, Larry Jr., by cutting his throat and shooting him and then setting the Bobish’s North Union Township home on fire.
Larry Jr. was seriously injured, but escaped the blaze and an off-duty state police trooper delivering newspapers with his sons found the youngster and alerted authorities.
In May, a federal court judge allowed Edwards to file an appeal of his conviction. The judge ordered the appeal be filed by Nov. 16 – nearly a month after Edward’s planned Sept. 19 execution date.
The motion for stay indicated Edwards would challenge the constitutionality of his convictions and sentence. Edwards’ automatic appeal to the Supreme Court was denied last year, and a subsequent request for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case was denied in April.
“It would not be possible for any counsel adequately to investigate, research, prepare and present a competent petition … prior to the execution date,” wrote attorney Tricia Russell, who was appointed to represent Edwards in his federal appeal.
She indicated that to properly mount the federal appeal, there needs to be a thorough review of the existing case files, and “an exhaustive extra-record investigation of the case,” both of which will take time to do.
“(Edwards) has not previously filed a federal petition for … relief in this or any other court. He is entitled to a stay of execution to permit him to do so. The federal courts of Pennsylvania have routinely granted such relief,” Russell wrote.
Edwards is currently incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene. At the time of his 2004 trial, the Bobish’s youngest son was living in another county and under an assumed name.
Police said Edwards robbed Larry Bobish Sr. of drugs two days before, and then killed them to avoid being arrested for robbery.
Edwards also was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Krystal Bobish’s unborn child. He received a life sentence for that.
Additionally, he was sentenced to three to six years for arson and burglary.