Deady says appeal on 1988 murder will help his case

BLOOMSBURG – When attorney William Ruzzo was approached by a Wyoming woman six years ago to appeal her son’s 1988 murder conviction, he knew exactly who he wanted to help him craft the case.

It made no difference to Ruzzo that his choice – Gerry Deady – no longer had a license to practice law.

Deady was a gifted appellate attorney with an impressive track record of overturning homicide cases, Ruzzo knew. He was confident Deady would be an asset in his effort to win a new trial for his client.

On Dec. 31, 2008, a senior judge presiding in Columbia County Court overturned the second-degree murder conviction of Kenneth Shiffer based on new evidence brought forth by Ruzzo and Deady.

For Deady, the victory marked the fourth time in 16 years that he played a role in overturning either a homicide conviction or a death sentence.

He and Ruzzo are now planning for Shiffer’s retrial -- dependent upon the outcome of an appeal filed by Columbia County prosecutors.

Whether Deady participates in the case as an attorney, or simply a paralegal helping with legal research, rests in hands of the disciplinary board of the state Supreme Court.

Deady, 54, was disbarred in 1998 based on a several complaints filed by former clients. A series of legal problems, including a drug arrest, followed.

He recently applied for re-admittance to the bar. On Tuesday, he will appear before the disciplinary board for the second half of a two-part hearing regarding his petition.

He’s hopeful that his work on the Shiffer case will show the board he has overcome the problems of his past and can once again be an asset to the legal profession.

The case is among roughly 500 cases Deady has worked on for various attorneys since he began rebuilding his life following his Nov. 17, 2000, arrest on drug charges in Bergen County, N.J.

Shiffer, now 48, formerly of Berwick, was convicted in 1988 of beating Leonard Radziak to death inside the Hayes Hotel in Berwick in May 1987.

Shiffer’s mother, Donna, now deceased, was convinced he was innocent and continued to appeal. When she first approached Ruzzo, the attorney admits he thought she was just another mother who couldn’t accept the possibility her son was a killer.

“Then I started to look at the case. I got a sense he actually was innocent,” Ruzzo said.

Ruzzo and Deady, who was working as a paralegal, saw numerous problems with the case.

The key evidence against Shiffer included a jacket, found in a closet of his home, that was stained with blood. At the time, DNA testing was not available, Ruzzo said. Experts could only say that there was blood on the jacket. They could not say whether it belonged to the victim, or even if it was human or animal blood.

Knowing that DNA testing had advanced rapidly since then, Ruzzo petitioned the court to have the jacket re-tested. The results, obtained in 2007, showed that the blood on the jacket did not belong to Radziak.

In his ruling overturning Shiffer’s conviction, Senior Judge Clinton B. Smith said it was clear that the newly obtained DNA evidence could have altered the jury’s verdict.

The Columbia County District Attorney’s Office appealed Smith’s ruling to the state Superior Court, which denied the challenge in January. Prosecutors then filed a petition asking the state Supreme Court to hear the case.

Ruzzo and Deady recently drafted a reply to the district attorney’s petition and are now waiting a decision from the court. If it declines to hear the appeal, Shiffer will get a new trial.

Deady, who along with Ruzzo is working on the case for free, said he also believes Shiffer is innocent. He just hopes he gets a chance to prove it in a court of law.

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