The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence for an Allentown serial killer who raped and murdered three women more than 20 years ago.
Harvey Miguel Robinson, 39, has long argued his trial counsel was ineffective, and that executing him would be unconstitutional because he suffers from brain damage.
But the state Supreme Court rejected those claims on Friday, meaning Robinson has 90 days to decide whether he wishes to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is his only remaining recourse.
A phone message to Robinson's attorney, James Moreno, was not returned today, and the Lehigh County district attorney's office declined to comment because the case is ongoing.
Robinson was convicted in 1994 of the rape and murders of Joan Burghardt, a 29-year-old nurse's aide; Charlotte Schmoyer, a 15-year-old newspaper carrier; and Jessica Jean Fortney, a 47-year-old grandmother.
Robinson only faces the death sentence for Fortney's murder. Although originally sentenced to death for all three, the other two verdicts were later changed to life in prison.
'Dreaded and notorious'
Fortney was found in the bedroom of her Allentown home July 14, 1993, according to court records. She had been raped, then beaten and strangled to death.
Burghardt's dead and battered body was discovered in her apartment in August 1993, although authorities concluded she had been dead for some time, according to court documents.
Schmoyer was abducted while delivering newspapers, then raped and stabbed 22 times, according to records. Her body was dumped in a heavily wooded area behind the Mosser Elementary School.
Robinson had argued his defense attorney was ineffective because, during the penalty phase of his 1994 trial, the attorney failed to provide school records to a forensic psychiatrist that would have shown Robinson to have brain damage.
Robinson also argued the attorney allowed that same psychiatrist to present evidence that Robinson had an antisocial personality disorder, which he argued was "disastrous" to his defense.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court found Robinson's claims without merit, but said even if they had merit, it is unlikely they would have changed the jury's minds when it came to imposing the death penalty given the brutality of the crimes.
"Before the penalty phase began, the jury knew that (Robinson) was a serial rapist and killer, a member of one of the most dreaded and notorious classes of killers in today's society," Chief Justice Ronald Castille wrote in a 40-page ruling.
"... This is not a case where a verdict of death was only sufficiently supported by the record," Castille wrote. "The death sentence for murdering Ms. Fortney was imposed with overwhelming record support."
Robinson argued the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the imposition of a death sentence on a brain-damaged individual.
But the Supreme Court upheld a previous decision from a lower court, which found Robinson's mental condition does not place him in the category of persons for whom capital punishment is constitutionally prohibited.
Robinson had argued that school records show his IQ dropped from a superior range of 126 at 6 years old in 1981 to an average range of 100 at age 14 in 1989, which he suggests means possible frontal lobe brain damage.
But the courts concluded that even if that did demonstrate brain damage, there was no way to conclude such damage existed at the time of his actual murders, according to records.
Robinson had filed a petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act. He could file others but there is no guarantee a Lehigh County judge will hear them.
Robinson's death penalty verdict for Burghardt's murder was changed to a life sentence in 2006 due to his age at the time of the crime. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to prohibit death penalties for juveniles under 18 when they committed their crimes.
In December 2012, prosecutors withdrew Robinson's death penalty for the Schmoyer case in exchange for a life sentence, under the condition that Robinson waive all his appeal rights. The victim's family requested that outcome so there would be no need for further appeal hearings.
Contact Allentown reporter Colin McEvoy at 484-894-2549 or email@example.com.Follow @AllentownLVL