Post by CCADP on Oct 3, 2005 18:02:11 GMT -5
Killer remains on death row
Kevin Brian Dowling killed a woman who was to testify against him at trial.
By RICK LEE
Daily Record/Sunday News
Saturday, October 1, 2005
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has denied Kevin Brian Dowling’s latest appeal, a ruling that keeps the convicted killer on death row.
A Bucks County jury brought to York County because of pretrial news coverage found Dowling guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Jennifer Lynn Myers in November 1998.
Dowling was arrested in December 1996 on robbery and attempted rape charges when Myers, 43, of Thomasville, spotted him working in a Hanover convenience store. Myers had been attacked in her West Manchester Township gallery in August of that year.
On Oct. 20, 1997, two days before Myers was to testify against him at trial, Dowling, then 39 and wearing a long, black wig, entered her relocated shop in Spring Grove and killed her, shooting her three times in the chest, left shoulder and left eye.
Dowling was quickly identified as a murder suspect and was arrested at his East Petersburg, Lancaster County, home.
Despite Myers’ absence as a witness, Dowling was convicted of robbery and attempted rape in April 1998.
Dowling had offered a videotape he took of himself fishing from a rowboat on a Lancaster County lake as an alibi for the day of the shooting. Authorities determined the video had been faked.
After his murder conviction, he contended he had been railroaded by a massive conspiracy involving witnesses, police, courts, the district attorney’s office, defense attorneys and his own family.
In his appeal to the state Supreme Court, he argued several points unsuccessfully, including that his attorneys were ineffective; that his 13-year-old daughter, who testified against him, was incompetent; and that the “finality of the death sentence will prevent (him) from any possibility of ever benefiting from the rapid progress of technology” that has resulted in the exoneration of other death row inmates.
The Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Russell M. Nigro, found that the trial record supported Dowling’s conviction. All of Dowling’s appeal issues were denied, determined to be improperly raised or previously waived.
Kevin Brian Dowling killed a woman who was to testify against him at trial.
By RICK LEE
Daily Record/Sunday News
Saturday, October 1, 2005
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has denied Kevin Brian Dowling’s latest appeal, a ruling that keeps the convicted killer on death row.
A Bucks County jury brought to York County because of pretrial news coverage found Dowling guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Jennifer Lynn Myers in November 1998.
Dowling was arrested in December 1996 on robbery and attempted rape charges when Myers, 43, of Thomasville, spotted him working in a Hanover convenience store. Myers had been attacked in her West Manchester Township gallery in August of that year.
On Oct. 20, 1997, two days before Myers was to testify against him at trial, Dowling, then 39 and wearing a long, black wig, entered her relocated shop in Spring Grove and killed her, shooting her three times in the chest, left shoulder and left eye.
Dowling was quickly identified as a murder suspect and was arrested at his East Petersburg, Lancaster County, home.
Despite Myers’ absence as a witness, Dowling was convicted of robbery and attempted rape in April 1998.
Dowling had offered a videotape he took of himself fishing from a rowboat on a Lancaster County lake as an alibi for the day of the shooting. Authorities determined the video had been faked.
After his murder conviction, he contended he had been railroaded by a massive conspiracy involving witnesses, police, courts, the district attorney’s office, defense attorneys and his own family.
In his appeal to the state Supreme Court, he argued several points unsuccessfully, including that his attorneys were ineffective; that his 13-year-old daughter, who testified against him, was incompetent; and that the “finality of the death sentence will prevent (him) from any possibility of ever benefiting from the rapid progress of technology” that has resulted in the exoneration of other death row inmates.
The Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Russell M. Nigro, found that the trial record supported Dowling’s conviction. All of Dowling’s appeal issues were denied, determined to be improperly raised or previously waived.