Convicted Murderer gets Stay of Execution

56 year old Hubert Michael was found guilty in 1993 of murdering 16 year old Trista Eng of Franklin Township. He drove her to state game lands in York county and shot her 3 times.

Michael faced execution, but was granted a stay twice before. In 1996 and in 2004. 

Thursday, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals granted Michael a stay because they wanted details of his case examined. The state Attorney General fought that decision, but the U.S. Supreme court ruled that the stay should stand.

Once Michael was transported to Rockview Prison, he refused his last meal, and prepared to die.
He read his bible, the newspaper and listened to the radio.

Department of Corrections officials say Michael was quiet, cooperative and polite. He was visited by spiritual advisors and his attorneys. After midnight, when the warrant expires, Michael will go back to Greene State Prison, and Governor Corbet will have to act again to return him to the death chamber.

Meanwhile, many who are morally against the death penalty protested down the street on Route 26, including many Penn State students.

Erica Hollis says Michael spending the rest of his life in prison is a more fair sentence and sends more of a message.

There are around 200 people on death row right now in Pennsylvania. Michael hubert would have been the 4th person to be executed by lethal injection in the past 50 years.  The Department of Corrections says "The matter is now back in the hands of the judiciary. If and when the stay is lifted, the execution will be scheduled directly."