12 March 2018 :

Scott Blystone (61, White), whose case produced a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1990 upholding the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's death-penalty statute, was resentenced to life without parole after prosecutors decided not to pursue the death penalty. Blystone was also sentenced Tuesday to an additional 10 to 20 years on a robbery conviction. Blystone was originally sentenced to death in the 1983 murder of 24-year-old Dalton Smithburger. Fayette County prosecutors said he picked up the victim, demanded money for gas, then robbed him of $13 and shot him six times in the back of the head. A federal district court judge had overturned his death sentence on March 31, 2005 (see) saying the defense should have called mental health specialists who might have persuaded jurors to sentence him to life. The Commonwealth's appeal of that ruling had been denied on December 22, 2011 (see).