HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania court has vacated the sentence for two brothers who pleaded guilty to killing their parents in Lehigh County, saying the judge in the case should have recused himself.
Judge Doug Reichley sentenced Bryan and David Freeman to 60 years to life in prison in February 2024 after a resentencing hearing to reconsider the automatic life sentence they had received previously.
Bryan was 17 and David was 16 when they, along with their 18-year-old cousin Nelson Benny Birdwell, killed the brothers’ parents and 11-year-old brother in brutal fashion. It happened on Feb. 26, 1995, inside the family’s Salisbury Township home.
Bryan admitted to the death of his mother. David admitted to the death of his father, and Birdwell went to trial and was found guilty for Dennis Freeman’s death.
In an opinion from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania on Friday, the court’s judges said Reichley should have recused himself from the case.
The brothers had filed a joint motion for recusal on Feb. 12, 2024, according to court paperwork. They said Reichley had previously served as the Lehigh County prosecutor in the case of a copycat killer, Jeffrey Howorth.
The Freeman brothers said that the prosecution’s theory in Howorth’s case was that Howorth was “inspired” by the brothers’ murders of their family, and that was why Howorth murdered his own family weeks later.
Bryan and David Freeman | Courtesy of the PA DOC
In the joint motion, the brothers argued that the judge’s prosecution of Howorth, and subsequent news articles regarding comments Judge Reichley made during his prosecution of Howorth, raised doubts about his ability to preside impartially over the brothers’ resentencing.
Reichley was also the prosecutor who represented the Commonwealth in their cousin Birdwell’s appeal, the brothers said in their motion for recusal.
After argument, the trial court denied the motion and proceeded to conduct the resentencing hearing after which Reichley sentenced them to at least 60 years in prison.
The brothers filed timely post-sentence motions, which the trial court denied, according to Friday’s court opinion.
In their court opinion, the judges said Reichley’s role as an advocate against Birdwell was so related and intertwined with the brothers’ case as to create an “impermissible risk of actual bias.”
Reichley abused his discretion by refusing to recuse, the court said in its opinion Friday.
“Not necessarily accusing judge rightly of being biased in any way or not being able to be fair and impartial but simply saying the standard is that there can be the appearance of bias,” said Matthew Rapa, David Freeman’s attorney.
Rappa says the DA can appeal the decision. If it’s upheld, the brothers will be back in court. But that could take a while as there are several cases that could impact the case.
“There’s, there’s currently a case up before the PA Supreme Court with regard to the issue of, you know what constitutes a de facto life sentence?” said Rapa.
69 News reached out to judge Reichley for comment; typically, judges don’t comment on their cases. He did not respond.
We also reached out to the Lehigh County District Attorney to see if he was planning on appealing to the Supreme Court but did not hear back.
A new judge will preside over a new resentencing hearing for the brothers.
The brothers were originally given sentences of life without parole.
WFMZ-TV | Jenny McCain
But then in 2012 in Miller vs. Alabama, the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to automatically sentence juveniles to life without parole.
Thousands of juvenile lifers across the country, including the Freemans, were given new re-sentencing hearings.