The fight goes on over Erie’s lone death row inmate and the use of dog DNA as evidence at his trial nearly 25 years ago.
The inmate, Stephen Treiber, has appealed his conviction to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
He is challenging a September ruling in which a federal judge rejected his request for a new trial or a new sentencing hearing. The 3rd Circuit, based in Philadelphia, docketed the notice of appeal on Nov. 13.
Canine DNA was among evidence in case
Treiber, 56, was found guilty of first-degree murder at trial in October 2022 and sentenced to die. A jury in Erie County Common Pleas Court convicted him of deliberately setting a house fire that killed his daughter, 2-year-old Jessica Treiber, in Millcreek Township in March 2001.
Stephen Treiber is led to a hearing at the Erie County Courthouse in 2001. In October 2002, Treiber was convicted and sentenced to die in the arson death of his 2-year-old daughter in 2001.
Treiber was accused of carrying out the arson and murder to avoid paying $250 a month in child support.
Among the evidence against him was DNA that the prosecution said linked Treiber’s dog to a dog hair found on a threatening note that Treiber was accused of planting in his mailbox about six weeks before the fire at his house on Blackstone Drive. The prosecution said Treiber planned the fire in advance and tried to make things appear like someone else set it.
Treiber has lost all his appeals in fatal arson
Treiber’s appellate lawyers have argued that his trial lawyers failed to adequately challenge the dog DNA, which the appellate lawyers call “junk science.” The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against Treiber in 2005, and in 2015, finding that the state Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, provided ample evidence for the jury to convict Treiber even without the DNA evidence.
A fire at Stephen Treiber’s house on Blackstone Drive in Millcreek Township killed his 2-year-old daughter on March 9, 2001. Treiber in October 2002 was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die.
Treiber appealed the 2015 state Supreme Court ruling to federal court in 2016. Pittsburgh-based U.S. District Judge Robert Colville ruled against him in a 119-page opinion on Sept. 14.
Colville said Treiber failed to prove 11 claims for relief. They included a claim that the prosecution erroneously relied on the dog DNA to win the conviction.
Treiber’s appeals have stayed his execution. He could still escape a death sentence if he loses all his appeals. Shortly after he took office in 2023, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro followed the lead of his predecessor, Gov. Tom Wolf, and imposed a moratorium on executions. Shapiro asked state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty.
Prosecutors are still handling capital cases statewide, but no executions are taking place.
Pennsylvania last executed a death row inmate in 1999 and has executed three inmates since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Erie County had as many as five inmates on death row at one time. All except Treiber died of natural causes or had their death sentences set aside on appeal.
Treiber is at the State Correctional Institution at Somerset. He is one of 94 Pennsylvania death row inmates, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie’s lone death row inmate takes case to federal appeals court