The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari filed by Richard Roland Laird, upholding his first-degree murder conviction and sentence of death for the 1987 murder of artist Anthony Milano in Bristol Township.
The denial concludes the final federal appeal in the matter, Richard Roland Laird v. Laurel Harry, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, et al.
Laird’s petition was an appeal of a federal habeas corpus decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, representing the Respondents, had filed a Brief in Opposition requesting the Court to deny the petition and maintain the conviction and sentence.
Laird, of Bristol Township, and his accomplice Frank Chester were first convicted and sentenced in 1989 for the brutal slaying of the 26-year-old Anthony Milano. Milano was kidnapped, repeatedly slashed, and beaten before his body was found in a wooded area near Venice Ashby and his vehicle was set on fire.
The case gained national significance because it marked the first instance in U.S. history where a conviction and death sentence were secured for ,a murder motivated by hatred of gay people.
However, a federal appeals court later overturned the initial convictions and sentences, granting the men retrials citing errors in the first proceeding.
Following this decision, Chester accepted a deal to plead guilty to murder in exchange for a life sentence. A second Bucks County jury subsequently convicted Laird in 2007 and handed down the death sentence once more in a case prosecuted by former Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry.
In the years that followed that Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, through the work done by the Appellate Unit, worked diligently to make sure that the sentence of death imposed by the jury remained undisturbed.
“The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari confirms the validity of Richard Roland Laird’s conviction and sentence,” District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said. “This decision is a crucial step toward bringing closure to the family and loved ones of Anthony Milano, who have waited decades for justice to be finally and irrevocably served.”
Deputy District Attorney John T. Fegley, Chief of Appeals for the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, was the Counsel of Record for the Respondents.
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