WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — Lawyers for a Pennsylvania woman who had faced the death penalty for starving her 7-year-old daughter want her to be resentenced to life in prison without parole. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2014 overturned the death
WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — Lawyers for a Pennsylvania woman who had faced the death penalty for starving her 7-year-old daughter want her to be resentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2014 overturned the death sentence of 48-year-old Michelle Sue Tharp, saying her trial attorney didn’t introduce enough evidence about her troubled childhood and diminished mental capacity.
The (Washington) Observer-Reporter (http://bit.ly/2kps1EK ) reports Tharp’s attorneys and a prosecutor met with a Washington County judge Wednesday about a possible new death penalty trial.
Tharp’s attorneys say some relatives have died in the 19 years since the girl starved, so another death penalty phase would be unfair because those folks could no longer testify about Tharp’s childhood and mental state.
District Attorney Eugene Vittone says he can’t comment on the negotiations but said, “it’s a death penalty case right now.”
