And an update on another POS...Eric Frein
Legal developments[edit]
The day after his capture, he was charged with
first-degree murder and
attempted murder in the shooting that killed Dickson and wounded Douglass.
[59] Frein was charged with
murder of the first degree,
criminal attempt to commit murder of the first degree, murder of a law enforcement officer of the first degree, criminal attempt to commit murder of a law enforcement officer of the first degree,
assault of a law enforcement officer, two counts of
terrorism under 18 Pa C.S.A. 2717(a)2 and 3, two counts of
weapons of mass destruction under 18 Pa C.S.A. 2716(a), discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, possessing instruments of crime, and
recklessly endangering another person.
[60][61][62] He pleaded not guilty to all charges during his video
arraignment on January 29, 2015. Prosecutors said they intended to seek a death sentence.
[63]
Before Frein was tried, a Pike County judge had to determine if information about a State Police internal affairs investigation involving witnesses could be released to Frein's attorneys.
[64]
In June 2016, it was determined that Frein's trial would be heard by an
imported jury from
Chester County due to the extensive pretrial publicity in Pike County. This would be the first time that a Pike County case would be heard by a jury impaneled from another county since the 1980s.
[65] Also in June 2016, Pike County Judge Gregory Chelak denied a motion made by Frein's attorneys to bar prosecutors from seeking a death sentence in the case. Chelak rejected Frein's claim that capital punishment was unconstitutional.
[66][67]
In September 2017, Trooper Bryon Dickson's widow, Tiffany Dickson, filed a lawsuit against Frein's parents alleging they missed warning signs about their son's behavior and that Frein's father ”psychologically manipulated” him into adopting militantly anti-government and anti-police views.
[68]
Conviction and sentence[edit]
On April 19, 2017, Frein was found guilty on all charges
[69][70] and on April 26, the jury recommended a death sentence. The following day, Frein was formally sentenced to death by
lethal injection.
[71] Frein currently awaits execution on death row at
SCI Phoenix, a maximum security prison in Pennsylvania.
[72]