Two brothers who pleaded guilty in the 1995 murder of their parents in Lehigh County could be resentenced a second time. <\/p>\n
A three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court on Friday, Jan. 9, vacated the February 2024 sentences handed down in the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas for Bryan R. Freeman and David J. Freeman<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan has a 30-day window to let the resentencing order stand or appeal. The appeal options are to ask a panel of more than three Superior Court judges to reconsider or take the appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, he said Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point we\u2019re only a couple of days in, so we are considering what option to take,\u201d he told lehighvalleylive.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Superior Court judges on Friday said Lehigh County\u2019s now-president judge, William Reichley, \u201cabused his discretion by refusing to recuse\u201d himself in the brothers\u2019 resentencing two years ago, according to the ruling. <\/p>\n On the night of Feb. 26, 1995, in the Freeman family\u2019s Salisbury Township home, Bryan Freeman fatally stabbed their 48-year-old mother, Brenda Freeman, and David Freeman bludgeoned their father, Dennis Freeman, 54, to death with an aluminum baseball bat. Their 11-year-old brother, Erik Freeman, also was beaten to death.<\/p>\n Bryan and David Freeman pleaded guilty in December 1995 and each received a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Bryan Freeman was 17 and David Freeman was 16 at the time of the killings. <\/p>\n The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012<\/a> that a mandatory life sentence for a juvenile is unconstitutional. That paved the way for the Freeman brothers\u2019 resentencing two years ago \u2014 to between 60 years and life in prison.<\/p>\n Both have served three decades in prison and would be in their 70s before they would be eligible for parole.<\/p>\n An accomplice convicted for his role in the death of Dennis Freeman, Nelson \u201cBen\u201d Birdwell, had turned 18 about two weeks before the deaths. His life sentence stands, although he has an appeal pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over his legal representation.<\/p>\n None of the three admitted guilt or was convicted in Erik\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Reichley presided over the Freeman brothers\u2019 2024 resentencing despite having served \u201cas the Lehigh County prosecutor in the case of a copycat killer, Jeffrey Howorth,\u201d according to Friday\u2019s ruling. Howorth, 16 at the time, fatally shot his parents, Susan and George Howorth, on March 3, 1995, in their Lower Macungie Township home. <\/p>\n The Freeman brothers argued the prosecution\u2019s \u201ctheory in Howorth\u2019s case was that Howorth was \u2018inspired\u2019 by the Brothers\u2019 murders of their family, and that was why Howorth murdered his own family weeks later,\u201d the Superior Court ruling<\/a> states.<\/p>\n That \u201craised substantial doubts regarding Judge Reichley\u2019s ability to preside impartially over the brothers\u2019 resentencing,\u201d according to the ruling. The Freemans\u2019 appeal of their 2024 resentencing also noted Reichley was prosecutor in an appeal filed by Birdwell.<\/p>\n \u201cIn reaching our conclusion, we emphasize that our standard of review is not whether Judge Reichley is subjectively capable of being impartial,\u201d the Superior Court panel wrote, continuing: \u201dRather, our standard of review is an objective one of whether a reasonable person would conclude that an appearance of bias exists.\u201d<\/p>\n The order remands the Freeman brothers for resentencing by another Common Pleas Court judge.<\/p>\n Reichley did not immediately return a call for comment. <\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is not \u2018was Judge Reichley unfair\u2019,\u201d Holihan said Monday. \u201cThe question is \u2018would a normal person on the street think Judge Reichley would be unfair.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou want the justice system to be fair, but you also want it to appear to be fair,\u201d the district attorney continued. <\/p>\n When the Freemans might reappear for resentencing a second time is unclear. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a question for me,\u201d Holihan said, \u201c(of) where the public interest lies. Does the public interest lie in pursuing an appeal that spends another couple of years and a lot of money and comes up empty and then we resentence them again after all of that, or is the public\u2019s best interest to just do the resentencing now?\u201d<\/p>\n David Freeman\u2019s attorney, Matthew Rapa, on Monday said a second resentencing could require time-consuming evaluations and reports before being decided. <\/p>\n