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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week denied a further hearing to Stanley Leo Spriggs, 68, who is serving a life sentence for a 2015 murder that occurred during a drug deal in Johnstown.
Spriggs of McConnellsburg, along with Perry Henderson and Kenneth O. Simmons of Mount Union, were convicted in the shooting death of 25-year-old Thomas Peebles.
They were in Johnstown on July 18, 2015, to purchase heroin and ended up meeting with Peebles of Monroeville in the Solomon Homes housing complex.
After the shooting, the men were apprehended as they approached the Altoona area.
Spriggs and Henderson were convicted of second degree murder and received life sentences while Simmons entered a plea to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 11 to 25 years in prison.
Spriggs has continued to appeal his case.
In June 2022, the state Superior Court dismissed the Spriggs appeal because it was filed more than a year after his direct appeal was denied.
In a post-conviction appeal, Spriggs contended his trial attorney was ineffective for not objecting to the instructions regarding second-degree murder that were provided to the jury by trial judge David J. Tulowitzki.
The judge denied the Spriggs post-conviction complaint filed by attorney Richard M. Corcoran of Ebensburg because it was untimely.
Spriggs asked the judge to grant him additional time to prepare the appeal because he was having trouble accessing the law library at SCI Rockview due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tulowitzki granted Spriggs an "Application for Extraordinary Relief" and held a hearing on Spriggs's complaint concerning the judge's alleged faulty instructions to the jury.
However, Tulowitzki eventually agreed with the prosecution that Spriggs's appeal was untimely.
The Superior Court in its June opinion agreed.
The state Supreme Court dismissed further appeal in the case last week, thereby upholding the Superior Court ruling.
Spriggs was sentenced to life in prison on May 1, 2017.
His initial sentence became final on June 24, 2019, which meant he had until June 24, 2020, to file a post-conviction appeal.
His petition filed by his newly appointed counsel (Corcoran) wasn't filed until Sept. 25, 2020.
Henderson, 52, is an inmate of SCI Forest while Simmons, 28, is incarcerated in SCI Albion.