Pennsylvania v. Patterson (majority)
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Appellant Maurice "Boo" Patterson appealed his death sentence after he was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, and criminal solicitation. The charges against Appellant arose from the fatal shooting of Eric "Bop" Sawyer by Sean "Raydar" Durrant. Durrant confessed to shooting the victim, but claimed he did so at the behest of Appellant, who had been incarcerated in the Lycoming County Prison. Appellant filed post-sentence motions on in 2010 and 2011; the motions were denied in 2012. However, upon discovering that Appellant's sentence for criminal conspiracy was an illegal sentence, in that it exceeded the maximum sentence for the crime, the trial court vacated that portion of Appellant's sentence and resentenced him to 10 to 20 years, to be served concurrently with his death sentence for the murder conviction. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed Appellant's conviction.
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