The Keystone State has the strictest juvenile crime laws in the United States. And most voters statewide tend to support those laws. But the devil is in the details.
By Bill Moushey
inn_inst@pointpark.edu
Published December 2010
When two 15-year-old junior firefighter volunteers from North Braddock, Pa., went on an arson spree in 2001 that ended with the death of an 85-year-old woman and her …
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Director’s Overview: Bill Moushey Talks About The Institutional Framework That Allows Pennsylvania To Convict Juveniles To Life In Prison
December 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Justice Magazine – Volume Two – Juvenile Life Without Parole in Pennsylvania
December 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Justice magazine is the official publication of the Innocence Institute of Point Park University -- one of only three journalism-based Innocence Projects in the country. The Innocence Institute investigates wrongful conviction claims from inmates in Pennsylvania's state prison system, but modified its work over the past year to focus on juvenile life without parole. Pennsylvania incarcerates more …
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Stacey Torrance investigation featured in Philadelphia City Paper
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Check out the Innocence Institute's latest investigation, from the July 30th, 2009 edition of Philadelphia City Paper:
Little Kid, Life Sentence
Pennsylvania has more juvenile lifers than any other state in the union. Stacey Torrance knows. He's been in jail since he was 14.
via Philadelphia City Paper …
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Multiple Confessions In Triple Murder Probe Provoke Questions: Did Juvenile Do It?
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Elizabeth Perry
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
An outlaw motorcycle club associate, Paul Reggettz, 35, worked for UPS, while his wife, Vanessa, 26, cared for their two children. He later admitted he repeatedly beat his wife and abused his family, once telling his son “he wished he’d never been born.”
Twelve days before Christmas in 1979, Mr. Reggettz told police …
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Interrogating Juveniles Without Recordings: Pressure Turns Friends Into Confessors
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Cynthia Levy
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
In December 1975 when Frank Slazinski returned to his Lawrenceville home after a lengthy hospital stay caused by a beating he took from robbers, they struck again.
This time, the 82-year-old retiree was bludgeoned with a blackjack before his assailants took $15 and a television set, which was never recovered.
He managed to …
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Juvenile Confessions
December 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Fear and Loathing Without Representation Leads To Admissions They Now Contest
By Bill Moushey, Elizabeth Perry and Cynthia Levy
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University
In 1976, Billy Pirozzi, 17, became so fearful without his parents present during police interrogations over the murder of an elderly Lawrenceville man, he confessed, though he changed his story four times, falsely …
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Monroeville lab hits the bull’s-eye on gunshot tests
April 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Monday, April 13, 2009
Michael A. Fuoco-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-Pittsburgh, PA
A.J. "Skip" Schwoeble, director of forensic science at RJ Lee Group Inc., sits with a scanning electron microscope linked to a computer at the company's headquarters in Monroeville.
Pennsylvania State Police investigators turned to a private Monroeville laboratory when they needed to know whether any gunshot …
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