{"id":2407,"date":"2020-11-19T11:59:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T19:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2407"},"modified":"2020-11-19T11:59:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T19:59:01","slug":"pa-high-court-upholds-murderers-death-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2407","title":{"rendered":"PA High Court Upholds Murderer&#8217;s Death Sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In an unanimous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Supreme\/out\/J-24-2020mo%20-%20104607661120024229.pdf?cb=1\">decision<\/a> announced on November 18, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Melvin Knight, for the torture and murder of 30-year-old woman in February of 2010.\u00a0 The Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/best-states\/pennsylvania\/articles\/2020-11-19\/pennsylvanias-top-court-denies-appeal-in-2010-torture-death\">reports<\/a> that Knight was one of two men sentenced to death for the killing. \u00a0 The victim, Jennifer Daugherty, was mildly handicapped with the mental capacity of a child and trusted everyone she met.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Her parents worked to help her become independent and self-reliant, and eventually allowed her to take the bus to the nearby city of Greensburg for occasional medical appointments.\u00a0 During one of those trips she befriended Peggy Miller.\u00a0 On a later trip she met five other friends of Miller&#8217;s, including Knight.\u00a0 On February 10, 2010 Jennifer took a bus to Greensburg for medial appointment and a sleepover with Peggy Miller.\u00a0 When she arrived at Miller&#8217;s apartment the five other new friends including Knight were there.\u00a0 Over the next 36 hours, Jennifer was beaten, raped, tied up and stabbed multiple times, her wrists were slit and she was finally strangled to death.\u00a0 Knight committed the rape and did most of the stabbing. \u00a0 The victim&#8217;s body was found on February 12 stuffed in a garbage can in a middle-school parking lot. \u00a0 Knight and Ricky Smyrnes, who slit Jennifer&#8217;s wrists, were convicted of aggravated first degree murder and sentenced to death. \u00a0 On direct appeal the PA Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing because the jury failed to formally find a mitigating circumstance.\u00a0 The second sentencing jury also voted unanimously for a death sentence. \u00a0 In his second direct appeal Knight made several claims including that evidence introduced at the hearing including photos of the victim and evidence that she was mentally handicapped were prejudicial.\u00a0 He also claimed that he suffered from a mental disability and that the state&#8217;s death penalty was unconstitutional. \u00a0 The court rejected all of them.\u00a0 In 2015 liberal Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a moratorium on the death penalty, which is still in effect today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an unanimous decision announced on November 18, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Melvin Knight, for the torture and murder of 30-year-old woman in February of 2010.\u00a0 The Associated Press reports that Knight was one of two men sentenced to death for the killing. \u00a0 The victim, Jennifer Daugherty, was mildly handicapped with the mental capacity of a child and trusted everyone she met.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PA High Court Upholds Murderer&#039;s Death Sentence - Crime &amp; 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