The state Superior Court on Monday ruled that the prison term previously handed down in the resentencing of a juvenile lifer in Allegheny County is illegal because it did not set his maximum prison term at life.
Regis Seskey, 42, must now be sentenced for a third time.
He was found guilty of first-degree murder in March 1994 after police said he shot and killed Marc Bova in a field over a drug debt in October 1992. He was sentenced to a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole.
Seskey was 17 at the time of the crime.
However, in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court found that mandatory life without parole for juveniles was unconstitutional, and last year declared the decision to be retroactive, meaning that it applied to all those juveniles serving life without parole across the country. In Pennsylvania, that number is about 500. Across the United States, it is about 2,500.
In November, Seskey was resentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III, who, after hearing evidence, ordered the defendant to serve at least 13 years to a maximum period of 26 years in prison.
The DA’s office objected, arguing that Judge Williams must set the maximum period of incarceration at life.
The prosecution appealed, and the state Superior Court heard arguments on the issue in May. The defense argued that Judge Williams had unfettered discretion in how to sentence.
But in its 10-page opinion, the three-judge appellate court wrote that Pennsylvania law requires that Seskey be sentenced to a maximum term of life in prison.
Judge Judith Olson pointed to a June 26 opinion by the state Supreme Court as precedent.
“For those defendants for whom the sentencing court determines a life-without-parole sentence is inappropriate, it is our determination here that they are subject to a mandatory maximum sentence of life imprisonment as required by [statute], accompanied by a minimum sentence determined by the common pleas court upon resentencing,” the state Supreme Court wrote.
It cited legislation passed by the General Assembly after the 2012 decision making juvenile life without parole unconstitutional, in which the Legislature set new penalties in those cases: For juveniles age 15-17, the sentence for first-degree murder was set at 35 years to life. For juveniles younger than 15, it was set at 25 years to life.
In both instances, the DA’s office pointed out in its appeal in Seskey, the maximum penalty was set at life in prison.
The court noted in its June opinion that “[T]he General Assembly has not passed a statute addressing the sentencing of juveniles convicted of first-degree murder pre–Miller.
“As we have previously stated, the General Assembly is quite able to address what it believes is a judicial misinterpretation of a statute, and its failure to do so in the years following [that] decision gives rise to the presumption that the General Assembly is in agreement with our interpretation.”
Seskey’s attorney, Abe Delnore, said he is currently reviewing the opinion to determine their next step.
Paula Reed Ward: pward@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2620 or on Twitter: @PaulaReedWard.
First Published: August 7, 2017, 4:45 p.m.
Updated: August 7, 2017, 6:26 p.m.
