Stephen Edmiston was sentenced to death by the State of Pennsylvania for the murder of a two year old girl
According to court documents Stephen Edmiston would sexually assault and murder a two year old girl
Stephen Edmiston would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Stephen Edmiston is incarcerated at SCI Phoenix
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A Huntingdon County man on death row for the rape and murder of a toddler in 1989 brought his latest attempt for a new trial to the Cambria County Courthouse Friday.
A Cambria County jury found Stephen Rex Edmiston, 57, guilty of the 1988 rape and murder of 2-year-old Bobbi Jo Matthew. Following several appeals, Edmiston’s attorneys now allege that DNA analysis of hair follicles presented to the jury should be revisited in a new trial.
During trial testimony, prosecutors told jurors that the toddler was partially scalped, showed blunt force injuries to the torso, received a skull fracture and her genitals obliterated before she was burned. Authorities located Matthew’s body in Reade Township, Cambria County, two days after Edmiston took her from her Clearfield County home.
On Friday, Centre County Senior Judge David Grine heard arguments from attorney David Zuckerman, assistant federal defender for the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Capital Habeas Unit in Philadelphia, filed under Pennsylvania’s Post Conviction Relief Act on behalf of Edmiston.
Zuckerman said a widespread FBI investigation in April 2015 revealed overstated hair analysis in dozens of trials and also showed that examiners were trained to give flawed testimony beyond the scope that science allowed.
“The hair was the only scientific evidence that linked Mr. Edmiston to the crime,” Zuckerman said. “And we’ve been challenging the reliability of that evidence for years.”
Based on that investigation, Zuckerman asked Grine to release the hair follicles for another round of DNA evidence.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Susan DiGiacomo said the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and other judges have dismissed nearly identical requests from Edmiston before.
“It was old news then and it’s old news now,” she said. “We’ve been through this.”
In 2009, Senior Judge Eugene Fike of Somerset County dismissed a motion from Edmiston’s attorneys that sought DNA testing on blood found in Edmiston’s truck after the crime, which was ruled inconclusive at the time of trial.
Fike’s ruling cited Supreme Court panel opinions that barred Edmiston from further DNA testing after conviction because of his confession to the crime.
State police testified at the trial that Edmiston drew a map with an “X,” marking the location of where the body was found, saying “you’ll find a dead, raped little girl.”
“He confessed,” DiGiacomo said.
In addition to the hair follicles taken from the scene, Matthews’ shorts were found in Edmiston’s truck and tire marks beside where her corpse was found matched those of Edmiston’s vehicle, she said.
DiGiacomo turned over motions dismissing Edmiston’s previous appeals and a similar case in Lackawanna County that was recently dismissed to Grine, who took the matter under advisement.
Former Gov. Tom Corbett signed a death warrant for Edmiston’s execution in 2014, but that was delayed by the federal court system the same year until all of Edmiston’s appeals are exhausted.
In February 2015, Gov. Tom Wolf declared a moratorium on the death penalty, stalling all executions statewide until a report from Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment is complete. This report, expected in 2016, is supposed to evaluate the cost, fairness and effectiveness of the death penalty in light of the numerous appeals filed on behalf of death row inmates.
