ASHLEY DECKER - 4 yo (1997) - Blair/Altoona PA

Rowlanda Lea Kenney, who is serving a life term for the murder of a
4-year-old child, has asked a Blair County judge to restore her appeal
rights so she can seek a new trial.Kenney, 45, has been in prison
since her August 1997 arrest for the murder of young Ashley Decker, her
boyfriend's daughter. She was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998
and was sentenced to life by Blair County Judge Hiram A. Carpenter.
Carpenter
held a video-conference hearing Friday as a step to determine if the
system failed by not providing Kenney with an attorney to file a
post-conviction appeal. Kenney viewed the proceedings but she spoke very
little during the hearing.
According to the law, Kenney should have filed her request for post-conviction review of her trial and sentence by 2002.
Kenney said she was informed in 2002 that Blair County had appointed attorney Russell Montgomery to represent her.
Montgomery,
who used to be a part-time assistant public defender and who worked for
a private law firm, is now a full-time assistant district attorney. He
contends he was never informed of his appointment.
Kenney's
"spiritual adviser," Robert Soliday of Altoona, was called to the
witness stand Friday to confirm that Montgomery apparently never knew
about his appointment.
Soliday met Kenney in the Blair County
Prison immediately after her arrest, and he said he has remained her
spiritual adviser throughout her stay in Blair County and at the State
Correctional Institution at Muncy, where she is incarcerated.
Soliday said he was asked by Kenney in 2002 to contact Montgomery about her case and to have him contact her.
He
said he spent several weeks attempting to get in touch with Montgomery
at his private law office, stating he went to the office and made phone
calls. Montgomery never contacted him and never got in touch with
Kenney.
Blair County Deputy District Attorney Jackie Bernard, who
tried the Kenney case, argued that the Soliday's testimony supported the
fact that Kenney knew there were deadlines she had to meet and that she
failed to meet them.
Kenney, who notified Judge Carpenter last
year she wanted to contest her conviction, waited eight years beyond the
deadline, Bernard argued, and therefore, she said, Kenney's petition
for further review of her case should be dismissed.
Carpenter summarized the issue before him, stating Montgomery was appointed, but nothing was ever filed.
"A serious issue obviously. We want to do it right," he concluded.
Burns and Bernard have 30 days to file legal briefs.
The
Ashley Decker murder was a landmark case in Pennsylvania because it led
to laws mandating police and child welfare agencies to cooperate with
each other in their investigations of child abuse.
http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/560914/Convicted-child-killer-wants-right-to-appeal.html?nav=742