Leon Moser was executed by the State of Pennsylvania for the murders of his wife and daughters
According to court documents Leon Moser and his wife would spit up as he was abusive towards her. Following church Leon would meet his wife and two daughters, soon after an argument would break out. Moser would take a rifle from his car and fatally shoot the three: Linda Moser, and his two daughters, Donna and Joanne Moser.
Leon Moser would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Leon Moser would be executed by lethal injection on August 16 1995
Leon Moser Photos
Leon Moser Case
Pennsylvania tonight executed a one-time seminary student who killed his ex-wife and two daughters outside a church on Palm Sunday 10 years ago.
The man, Leon Moser, 52, was killed by lethal injection less than an hour after the United States Supreme Court, on a 5-to-4 vote, lifted a stay that a Federal appeals court had issued to give lawyers time for a competency hearing on Thursday morning.
Mr. Moser was declared dead 11 minutes after poison began dripping into his body.
The former Army lieutenant pleaded guilty to killing his former wife, Linda, 35, and daughters Donna, 14, and Joanne, 10, outside the St. James Episcopal Church in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Providence Township.
After entering his plea, he said: “I request the death penalty and that it be carried out as soon as possible.” He never changed his position even as the church’s former minister, the Rev. Melford Holland and Mr. Moser’s brother, Theodore, issued appeals on his behalf.
Lawyers for Mr. Moser, who underwent psychiatric treatment while in prison, said they never had the opportunity to argue about his mental state.
The prosecutor, Mary MacNeil Killinger, argued that the lawyers had no business representing Mr. Moser because he wanted to die.
An 11th-hour request for a competency hearing was filed by the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Defender Organization. A Federal judge’s ruling denying the hearing was overturned by an appeals court, and the Supreme Court at first declined 5-to-4 on Wednesday to intervene. Three hours later, the High Court lifted the stay.
Mr. Moser was only the second person executed in Pennsylvania in 33 years. Keith Zettlemoyer, who also wanted to die, was put to death on May 2.
It was the 35th execution in the United States this year and the 293d since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
