News

June 27, 2009

Murderer trying for new trial

Henry Stubbs, convicted of killing mother and daughter, to get appeal reconsidered.

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – Convicted double murderer Henry Stubbs won a minor victory in his attempt for a new trial.

The state Superior Court ordered a hearing to determine if Stubbs, 44, was too late in filing an appeal.

A Luzerne County jury convicted Stubbs in May 2003 of two counts of first-degree murder after a three-week trial before Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.

Wilkes-Barre police accused Stubbs of forcing his way into the Stark Street home of 33-year-old Elena Herring and her daughter, Victoria Ivanova, in December 2001.

Herring was found raped and strangled. Ivanova, 6, had her face smashed into a concrete floor before being hanged from the basement ceiling.

Olszewski sentenced Stubbs to two consecutive life terms in prison when a single juror held out on imposing the death penalty.

The conviction was upheld by the state’s Superior and Supreme courts, and ruled to be unworthy of hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Stubbs, incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Huntington in central Pennsylvania, filed an appeal under the state’s Post Conviction Relief Act. That appeal, commonly referred to as a PCRA, is filed after a defendant’s direct appeal to state appellate courts is resolved.

The PCRA gives a defendant a chance to appeal an error that an attorney previously failed to raise or because of a change in the law.

Stubbs claimed in his PCRA that his attorney, Al Flora, failed to challenge DNA evidence and question expert witnesses introduced by prosecutors during his trial.

Olszewski previously denied Stubbs’ claim in November 2007, saying at the time that Stubbs failed to follow Flora’s advice not to talk to investigators. Stubbs chose instead to talk to investigators on advice from his family.

In his latest challenge, Stubbs claimed he met the deadline in appealing Olszewski’s November 2007 ruling.

Stubbs had 30 days to appeal the November 2007 order.

It wasn’t made part of Stubbs’ case until April 2008, well after the 30-day requirement.

Stubbs claimed he did indeed file the appeal within the time constraint, alleging late December 2007 deductions for postage from his inmate account. A hearing is scheduled on July 16.

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