Judge grants year-long postponement for juvenile homicide resentencing
A Fayette County judge has granted the one-year postponement for the resentencing hearing of a man serving life for murder.
President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. granted the motion made by attorneys Alice Mitinger, Brian Maloney and Julie Patter with the firm of Cohen & Grigsby of Pittsburgh to postpone the resentencing hearing for Joseph Metts, 41, to Sept. 28, 2017.
In his order, Wagner delayed the hearing to the requested date at 9:30 a.m. or at an earlier date if the attorneys are ready sooner.
The attorneys state they took over representation for Metts from the Fayette County public defender’s office less than two weeks prior to this week’s originally scheduled hearing.
“To properly prepare for the resentencing hearing, counsel must review Mr. Metts’ file; interview family members, friends and other potential witnesses; and retain a mitigation expert to testify on Mr. Metts’ behalf,” the motion states.
The original resentencing date was ordered by Wagner in July because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that mandatory life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional.
Metts was 17 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for second-degree murder for killing Piper Newland, a corrections officer for the Fayette County Prison, in the early hours of Jan. 5, 1992.
Metts is currently lodged in the State Correctional Institution in Dallas.