BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun
By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun
Nearly 100 people have added their names to an online peititon seeking to keep a convicted child rapist behind bars since Wednesday, when two U.S. Supreme Court decisions appeared to bolster the man’s appeal arguments and the likelihood he could be released from prison despite having been sentenced to four life terms.
John Joseph Merzbacher, now 70, was accused of terrorizing students at a Baltimore Catholic school in the 1970s and convicted two decades later of six counts of child rape and sexual abuse in connection with the allegations. But he more recently claimed that the findings and their punishments shouldn’t stand, because he was never told of a 10-year plea deal proposal before his trial. A federal judge, Andre M. Davis, agreed with him in 2010, ruling that Merzbacher should get a second chance at the offer under certain conditions, opening the door for his immediate release.
The Maryland attorney general’s office fought the ruling, but had to put its own appeal on hold for more than a year to see how the country’s high court would decide two similar cases involving botched plea offers. The justices’ decisions, each reached in a 5-4 vote, seem to side with Merzbacher’s interpretation.
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