Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By JOE HEALEY jhealey@leader.net
Wednesday, February 02, 2000 Page: 1A
HARRISBURG – The state Superior Court upheld a Luzerne County judge’s
ruling that an 11-year delay in convicted killer Keith Snyder’s prosecution
was justified.
Snyder was convicted in 1994 of igniting the July 2, 1982, fire that
killed his wife, Diane, and infant son, Brian, in their Wright Township home.
Former Luzerne County District Attorney Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.
investigated the deaths in 1993 and 1994. Before that, the investigation had
been dormant for seven years.
Snyder’s attorney, John Moses, and Olszewski argued their sides of the
appeal last year in Harrisburg.
The court upheld Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Hugh Mundy’s
October 1998 decision that the delay was justified.
The state Supreme Court ruled in May 1998 that the delay in prosecution
might have impaired the defense’s case. Although the seven Supreme Court
justices who reviewed the appeal agreed Snyder was denied a fair trial, three
of them dissented on whether another hearing was necessary.
The dissenters said Snyder should be released from prison because the
prosecution had the opportunity at a pre-trial hearing to explain the delay.
The court sent the case back to Mundy, the trial judge, to decide that
issue. After a two-day hearing in August 1998, Mundy ruled the prosecution’s
delay was proper.
Moses has said the delay was not warranted and on Oct. 14, he filed an
appeal of Mundy’s ruling to the state Superior Court. Its 2-1 decision was
posted on their Web site on Tuesday.
Snyder was convicted June 20, 1994, on two counts of first-degree murder
and sentenced to two life sentences for the killings. The 48-year-old is
serving a life sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy.
In the opinion, the court ruled that the decision does not mean that every
district attorney in the state can “drag their feet in murder, or other
investigations with little concern that they will lose a conviction.”
But the opinion also noted that some murder cases take several years, and
prosecutors should not fear convictions will be thrown out because of delays.
Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas will be the sixth district
attorney to deal with the Snyder case. Lupas said he expected Snyder’s
attorney, John Moses, to appeal the ruling.
“Obviously we’re very pleased with the Superior Court’s decision,” Lupas
said.
Lupas said Moses can go two routes in the appeal. He may ask his appeal to
be heard by the entire Superior Court or he may appeal the three-member
panel’s decision to the State Supreme Court.
Moses could not be reached for comment.
Call Healey at 829-7225.