Entries tagged with “Samuel Randolph”
Issues
Apr 12, 2022
Samuel Randolph Exonerated from Pennsylvania Death Row as Prosecutors Withdraw Charges at Retrial
A Harrisburg, Pennsylvania trial court has granted the application of the Dauphin County District Attorney’s office to withdraw all charges against Samuel Randolph, IV, completing his exoneration of a double murder that sent him to Pennsylvania’s death row in 2003. On April 6, 2022, two days after the U.S. Supreme Court had declined to review the county prosecutors’ appeal of a federal court ruling granting Randolph a new trial, District Attorney Fran Chardo filed a motion to enter an order of…
Issues
Jul 28, 2021
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Grant of New Trial for Pennsylvania Death-Row Prisoner Denied Counsel of His Choice
A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s decision granting a new trial to a Pennsylvania death-row prisoner whose retained lawyer was prevented from representing him at trial. In a unanimous decision issued on July 20, 2021, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Samuel Randolph’s right to representation by counsel of choice was violated when the trial court refused to grant even a three-hour continuance to permit his chosen lawyer to…
Issues
May 29, 2020
Federal Court Grants New Trial to Pennsylvania Death-Row Prisoner Denied Representation by Counsel of Choice
A federal district court has granted a new trial to Pennsylvania death-row prisoner Samuel Randolph (pictured), holding that the trial court unconstitutionally denied Randolph the right to be represented by counsel of choice, forcing him to go to trial with an unprepared court-appointed lawyer with whom he had an “absolute[,] complete breakdown of communication.” In overturning Randolph’s convictions and death sentences for the murders of two men in a Harrisburg bar in 2001, Chief Judge…