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		Appeal Keeps Wideman in Jail November 25, 1998 By John M.R. Bull Post-Gazette Convicted killer Robert Wideman came within minutes yesterday of being released from prison for the first time in 23 years, but a last-minute appeal by the district attorney dashed his hopes. A judge yesterday granted Wideman the right to be free on bond pending a new trial on newly discovered evidence. But Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala filed an appeal five minutes before court offices closed for the day. In the appeal, he formally protested to Superior Court that bond should not have been allowed in Wideman's case. The appeal acted as an injunction, preventing Wideman's release until a hearing can be held before the higher court. It was unclear last night when that hearing would be scheduled. Superior Court would have to set the date, which could be at any time. Wideman's attorneys were furious. "It's venal, evil," snapped Mark D. Schwartz of Philadelphia. "It seems like every single step is like getting blood out of a stone," said Wideman's other attorney, Paul Gettleman. The state prison on the North Side was set to release Wideman last night if the proper paperwork was received. Bond was set at $150,000, which was posted in the form of a $30,000 property bond and $12,000 in cash arranged by the Wideman family and accepted by the county bail agency. The sheriff's deputies were prepared to transport Wideman from prison to his family's arms. Earlier in the day, Wideman's brother -- the critically acclaimed author John Edgar Wideman -- exulted in his brother's anticipated and long-sought release from prison. "Robbie's back with us in the real world," John Wideman said. "This is about justice. I'm almost speechless." Zappala nixed any joyful family holiday reunion. Zappala said he feared that Wideman would flee if released from prison, where he has been serving a life sentence since his 1976 conviction for participating in the robbery-shooting death of Nichola "Nickie" Morena, owner of a used car lot. Zappala said he doesn't believe Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge James McGregor should have granted Wideman a new trial or allowed him to post bond pending the new trial. Wideman's conviction was valid and the so-called new evidence has no bearing on his guilt, contrary to McGregor's ruling, Zappala said. "We feel strongly about the law," said Zappala. "I respect him, but we disagree on the law." On Monday, McGregor decided that Wideman deserved a new trial because new evidence has been discovered that poor medical care could have contributed to, or caused, Morena's death. Yesterday, McGregor ruled that Wideman should be released from prison on bond until a new trial can be held. Morena was shot in the back. Wideman was not the shooter but was found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory term of life in prison. State law holds accomplices equally liable if someone is killed during the commission of a felony, in this case robbery. However, doctors who treated Morena may have been negligent, and McGregor ruled that such information could have changed the outcome of the original trial if jurors had been aware of it. Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht testified at a court hearing on Wideman's request for a new trial that Morena wouldn't likely have died if doctors had done a better job. Doctors at the former St. Joseph's Hospital on the South Side admitted in 1983, in a civil lawsuit filed by the Morena family, that they did not insert a chest tube into Morena after he was shot and dawdled for 40 minutes before having him transferred to another hospital for surgery. If surgeons had gotten to Morena 15 minutes earlier, he likely would have lived, Wecht testified. As a result of that opinion, McGregor ruled that a new jury should decide if Morena died as a result of medical malpractice or a homicide. The original jury, if it heard about the doctors' mistakes, might have convicted Wideman of a lesser degree of homicide, in which case Wideman likely would have completed his prison term by now, McGregor said. Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Spangler argued that the inactions of the doctors was irrelevant to Wideman's guilt on a conviction of second-degree murder. Morena wouldn't have needed a doctor in the first place if he hadn't been shot, Spangler noted. The bullet killed Morena, not the doctors, Spangler reasoned. Zappala's appeal didn't state a legal reason for which he believed McGregor erred in setting bond for Wideman's release. Zappala's grounds will be revealed at a hearing in Superior Court. But Zappala did say in an interview with a reporter yesterday afternoon that he planned to have Wideman kept in jail without bond under provisions of a statewide referendum overwhelmingly -- yet unofficially -- approved by voters three weeks ago. That referendum allows -- some say requires -- a judge to deny bond for people accused of first- and second-degree murder, so-called capital crimes, which mandate life imprisonment terms on conviction. Zappala said he hoped the statewide votes will be formally tabulated and the change in the law signed by the governor within a few weeks. Zappala's appeal likely will draw a Superior Court battle over whether a judge may revoke bond or must revoke bond, and whether the new law applies to those now free on bond or only to those who seek bond on capital crimes that occur after the law takes effect. "I feel sorry for the victim's family," Zappala said. "After all this time, they have to go through all this. It's sad." Morena's mother, Clair Morena, cried after McGregor yesterday paved the way for Wideman's freedom. "I cannot believe the judge did this," she said. "I fought for 23 years to keep him behind bars and by God I'll do it again. This is terrible. There's no way this is justice." She sat through the original trial, in which Wideman and two other men were convicted of killing Morena during a robbery. At the original trial, a witness testified that when Morena tried to run away, Wideman said "get him," and Michael Dukes shot Morena. Morena died in Mercy Hospital several hours later. Dukes and Wideman were convicted of second-degree murder, and were sentenced to life in prison. A third man, Cecil Rice, was convicted of third-degree murder, and has served his time in prison and has been released.

MarkSchwartzEsq.com

Appeal Keeps Wideman in Jail