Legal Mix-Up: Admitted Rapist Released from Prison

[larrymeyer]

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/...om-Prison.html

Legal Mix-Up: Admitted Rapist Released from Prison

By A. BLAIR

Updated 3:16 PM EDT, Tue, Jun 30, 2009

William Evans has been released early from prison.

An admitted rapist is back on the streets following a legal mix-up.

William H. Evans, 59, of Allentown was released from state prison after a federal judge determined his constitutional rights were violated. This decision released Evans two years early. He was imprisoned after being convicted of beating and raping three children 22-years ago. Evans raped and molested two girls and a boy in 1982 when they were 3, 5 and 8, according to court records.
Lehigh County is trying to get the decision overturned but was not able to win an argument to keep Evans in prison until the legal dispute is put to rest.

On May 29, U.S. District Judge Norma Shapiro ruled that the state Department of Corrections mistakenly told Evans he'd be released in 2006. Later, realizing its error, the department told Evans the release date was 2011.

The department had changed the date without a hearing or written opinion according to Shapiro. She ordered Evans released within 30 days from the State Correctional Institution at Waymart, Wayne County.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear Lehigh County's appeal this fall, according to the district attorney's office.
"Although we respect Judge Shapiro's decision, we believe that her legal analysis was incorrect, that Mr. Evans' rights had not been violated and that he should remain in a state prison until his maximum sentence for Lehigh County crimes is served," District Attorney Jim Martin told The Morning Call in a statement.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Evans has served his sentence for the county and the issue was only between Evans and Lehigh County according to lehighvalleylive.com.

Evans was convicted by a Lehigh County jury in 1987. He was sentenced to 55 to 110 years in prison. Evans was also convicted by a Northampton County jury, where he received 315 to 638 years in prison.

New trials were ordered by the state Superior Court in 1992. The court says impermissible testimony had been used during the first two trials.

In Northampton County, Evans entered a guilty plea in January 1994 to three counts of rape. He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. In Lehigh County he pleaded no contest to three counts of rape. Evans was sentenced in June 1994 with 10 to 20 years to run at the same time as the Northampton County sentence. Evans also received a consecutive 20 years of probation.

[larrymeyer]

Obama's next Supreme Court Judge U.S. District Judge Norma Shapiro