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Another chance: Lesko gets third chance at beating death

3 min read

If Pennsylvania has a death penalty, it mostly exists only in the form of lip service, as proven once again by this week’s Westmoreland County court ruling that gives convicted multiple murderer John Lesko a chance at a new trial in the 1980 death of police officer Leonard C. Miller. Lesko and his partner in crime, Michael Travaglia, made headlines as the “Kill for Thrill” duo who snuffed out four lives in late December 1979 and early January 1980, including Marlene Sue Newcomer, 26, of Connellsville, who made the fatal mistake of picking them up as they hitchhiked early on New Year’s Day.

Lesko, now 47, is serving three life sentences but has sat on death row for 25 years for his role in the death of police officer Miller. He was originally sentenced to death for that one in 1981, but he got a second chance when a federal appeals court vacated that sentence. A second Westmoreland County jury gave him the death penalty in 1995.

Four years later, with a signed death warrant bearing his name, Lesko, like so many others in his situation, kept the legal merry-go-round spinning by filing yet another appeal, this one claiming ineffective legal counsel. Seven years later, Westmoreland County Judge Richard E. McCormick Jr. has agreed with Lesko’s contention – even though Lesko used the same ineffective attorney for nearly 20 years.

So Lesko gets a new trial, 25 years after he embarked on an infamous killing spree and 24 years after he was sentenced to death. But he’s reportedly willing to plead guilty to waxing Miller, in exchange for another life-in-prison sentence, which he could then place on his shelf with the other three.

We won’t debate the merits or demerits of the death penalty right now. What’s more germane regarding the Lesko case is whether Pennsylvania really has a death penalty that can and will be enforced. Cases like Lesko’s, which seem to drag on and on and on, only reinforce the belief of many that justice cannot and will not be carried out, because of endless legal maneuvering. Fayette County has had two men on death row – Scott Blystone and Mark Breakiron – for nearly as long as Lesko, and with each passing year it seems more likely that noted defense attorney Johnnie Cochran will rise from the grave than they will be put in one.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck says he plans to appeal McCormick’s ruling. Should that effort fail he will try Lesko, yet again, and seek the death penalty, yet again, for his role in robbing Miller of life.

After 25 years, you’d think the legal wrangling in cases like Lesko’s would end. And if a sentence is never carried out, pending eternal appeals, it might as well never be imposed in the first place.

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