By Bill Moushey Despite an appeal of an order releasing David Munchinski after 20 years in prison over rampant prosecutorial misconduct during two trials in a grisly 1977 double murder case in Fayette County, his lawyer today asked a judge to grant the man immediate bond. In a four-page petition, Noah Geary, the Washington Pa.-based lawyer for the former Latrobe man, argued it would be …
[Read more...]

By Bill Moushey October 9, 2004 Stating a judge who reversed a 1986 Fayette County double-murder conviction over widespread prosecutorial misconduct was barred from doing so on procedural grounds, the state attorney general yesterday filed an appeal that at least temporarily prevents a man’s release after 20 years in prison. The one paragraph notice of appeal was filed three days before …
[Read more...]

By Bill Moushey October 2, 2004 Prosecutorial misconduct so permeated a Fayette County double murder case that a judge yesterday reversed convictions against a man who has been imprisoned for almost 20 years and vowed to release him if prosecutors do not turn over a witness statement they insist does not exist. In a sweeping 120-page ruling handed up yesterday in the David Munchinski …
[Read more...]

By Bill Moushey April 10, 2004 A visiting judge who yesterday listened to allegations of serious prosecutorial misconduct against three Fayette County prosecutors in a 26-year-old double-murder case said he will decide within the next 45 days whether to free David Munchinski, grant him a new trial, or send him back to prison for the rest of his life. After listening to over two hours of …
[Read more...]

By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Thursday, August 14, 2003 Three former Fayette County prosecutors admitted yesterday that potentially exculpatory evidence should have been turned over to defense lawyers for David Munchinski before he was convicted of a double murder 18 years ago. But all of them also testified during a post-conviction hearing in the 1977 drug-related murder …
[Read more...]

By Bill Moushey Wednesday, August 13, 2003 Two former lawyers for convicted murderer David Munchinski testified yesterday that evidence withheld from the former Latrobe man would have won him an acquittal and that he should be granted a new trial. Munchinski received two life sentences following his conviction in 1986 for the murders of James Peter Alford, 24, and Raymond Gierke, …
[Read more...]

By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Thursday, March 20, 2003 Throughout David Munchinski's 20-year battle against a double-murder conviction, two Fayette County prosecutors have insisted that a taped statement from the state's star witness never existed. Yesterday, the lead investigator in the 1977 murder case not only told a judge that he was present when the statement from …
[Read more...]

By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Tuesday, January 07, 2003 Throughout his two trials and 16 years of imprisonment for a 1977 double murder in Fayette County, David Munchinski claimed that hidden forensic evidence and witness statements would eventually prove that the man who supposedly saw him commit his crime had lied, and that authorities knew it. In a series of rulings late …
[Read more...]

Conflicts of interest spur removal plea By Bill Moushey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Thursday, August 01, 2002 The Fayette County district attorney has asked a judge to remove her office from involvement in the controversial double murder case of David Munchinski because of potential conflicts of interest. Last week, District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon's office was relieved of responsibility …
[Read more...]

A QUESTION OF INNOCENCE: Daughter's questions could help free dad By Bill Moushey Contributions to this article were made by graduate students Mark Bursic, Jaime McLeod, Craig Campbell, Carmela Greco and Chuck Brittain; Point Park undergraduate students Amanda Gillooly, Misty Chybrzynski, Patrick Fulton, Mark Ionadi and Jasmine Gehris; and University of Pittsburgh undergraduate students …
[Read more...]