On September 12, 2014, Corporal Bryon Dickson II of the Pennsylvania State Police was killed at Blooming Grove, in Pike County in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. He was 38. A second trooper, then 31, was critically wounded and survived. The man later convicted of the crimes, Eric Matthew Frein, was 31 when he was taken into custody on October 30, 2014.
On April 19, 2017, a jury in the Pike County Court of Common Pleas, sitting at Milford, found Frein guilty on all 12 counts, among them first-degree murder, murder of a law enforcement officer and terrorism. A week later the same jury sentenced him to death, and on April 27, 2017 the trial judge entered two death sentences along with a term of 97 to 194 years on the remaining counts. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the convictions and sentences on April 26, 2019. In January 2020 the Supreme Court of the United States rejected his further appeal. Pennsylvania has not carried out an execution since 1999, and its governors have since 2015 held a moratorium on executions, so the sentence has not been carried out.
The offenses took place on September 12, 2014, at Blooming Grove, in Pike County. Corporal Bryon Dickson II of the Pennsylvania State Police was the officer killed. He was 38. The second victim, a trooper aged 31, was critically wounded. He survived, and the law treats him as the victim of the attempt counts.
Frein was arrested on Thursday, October 30, 2014, by U.S. Marshals in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, 48 days after the killing. He was then 31. State police charged him in Pike County with first-degree murder and attempted murder. On the following day, the district attorney said he would seek the death penalty. In November 2014 police added terrorism counts to the charges. A magisterial district judge sitting at the Pike County court in Milford heard evidence for nearly five hours on January 5, 2015, and ruled that there was enough to send Frein to trial on all charges. Prosecutors confirmed that they would seek a death sentence if he were convicted of first-degree murder.
The case was heard in the Pike County Court of Common Pleas at Milford. The trial began on April 5, 2017, two and a half years after the arrest, and it lasted about two weeks.
The charges decided by the jury, as listed in the opinion of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, were first-degree murder; first-degree criminal homicide of a law enforcement officer; criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder and criminal homicide of a law enforcement officer; assault of a law enforcement officer in the first degree; terrorism; and recklessly endangering another person. The Commonwealth also charged further counts. The jury convicted on all 12 counts.
The jury deliberated for about four hours after closing arguments and returned guilty verdicts on all counts on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. The judge polled the jurors one by one, and each confirmed the verdict. The judge told them that the trial was not over, because they would now decide the penalty on the two first-degree murder charges. Governor Tom Wolf welcomed the verdict, saying that "Today justice was served."
The penalty phase followed within a week. The prosecution, led by the Pike County District Attorney, argued that Frein had shown what the District Attorney called "wickedness of heart" and that full justice meant a sentence of death. The defense asked the jury to weigh mitigating evidence about his upbringing and to impose life without parole. Frein himself did not ask the jury to spare his life.
On Wednesday, April 26, 2017, the jury returned a sentence of death. Under the Pennsylvania sentencing statute, the jury found four aggravating circumstances: that the victim was a police officer killed in the performance of his duty; that the offense was committed during the perpetration of other felonies; that Frein knowingly created a grave risk of danger to other persons; and that he had been convicted of another offense for which life imprisonment or death was possible. It found no mitigating circumstance. The defense lawyer said afterward that the lack of any mitigating finding surprised the defense.
The Pike County sheriff rang the courthouse bell eight times, a county tradition marking a death sentence. The bell had last sounded for a condemned inmate in the 1980s. On Thursday, April 27, 2017, the judge formally imposed two death sentences, one for first-degree murder and one for first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, to run together, along with a term of 97 to 194 years on the other counts. The District Attorney called the penalty "so richly deserved." The defense said it would appeal. A spokesman for the Governor said that the moratorium on executions remained in place.
Death sentences in Pennsylvania are reviewed directly by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Frein's case was argued on May 17, 2018, and decided on April 26, 2019. The court affirmed the judgment of sentence. The opinion for the court was joined by five justices; one justice filed a concurring opinion and another filed an opinion concurring and dissenting.
The court addressed five main issues. It found the evidence sufficient to support the convictions for first-degree murder and for criminal homicide of a law enforcement officer. It held that the trial court had erred in declining to suppress statements Frein made in a police interview, because officers kept questioning him after he clearly invoked his right to remain silent. The court found the error harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt, and so granted no relief; it did not reach his right-to-counsel claim. On victim impact evidence, the court found that the testimony was extensive and that some of it went beyond strict victim impact evidence, but since the jury had found no mitigating circumstance it presumed the jury had not been influenced, and it rejected the constitutional challenges under earlier decisions. It held that the trial court's instructions on mitigation were consistent with controlling precedent. Finally, in the statutory review required in capital cases, it concluded that the death sentences were not the product of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor and that the record supported at least one aggravating circumstance.
In January 2020 the Supreme Court of the United States rejected Frein's appeal, in which he had argued that his right to counsel was violated during questioning, and the convictions and death sentences stood.
Pennsylvania restored capital punishment after the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1976, but it has carried out very few executions. The last was in 1999, and the state has executed only three people since 1976. When Frein was sentenced in 2017, Governor Wolf, who served from 2015 until January 2023, had imposed a moratorium on executions, issuing a series of reprieves; his office said it remained in place. Death sentences continued to be imposed and reviewed during that time, but no execution warrant was carried out. On February 16, 2023, Governor Josh Shapiro announced that he would not allow executions to be carried out while he was in office, that he would refuse to sign execution warrants, and that he would grant reprieves to any inmate scheduled for execution. At that date the state's Department of Corrections counted 101 people on death row. The governor also called on the General Assembly to repeal the death penalty.
The legal dispute on appeal concerned how the police interview was conducted, the amount of victim impact evidence and the instructions to the jury. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania found error in the interview but held it harmless and denied relief on every claim.
September 12, 2014: Corporal Bryon Dickson II is killed and a second trooper is wounded at Blooming Grove, Pike County.
October 30, 2014: Frein is arrested by U.S. Marshals in Monroe County, 48 days after the killing.
October 2014: Charged in Pike County with first-degree murder and attempted murder; the District Attorney says he will seek the death penalty.
November 2014: Police add terrorism counts.
January 5, 2015: A magisterial district judge holds Frein for trial on all charges.
2015: Governor Wolf announces a moratorium on executions.
April 5, 2017: Trial begins in the Pike County Court of Common Pleas.
April 19, 2017: The jury convicts on all 12 counts.
April 26, 2017: The jury sentences Frein to death.
April 27, 2017: The judge formally imposes two death sentences and 97 to 194 years.
April 26, 2019: The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirms the convictions and sentences.
January 2020: The Supreme Court of the United States rejects his appeal.
February 16, 2023: Governor Shapiro announces he will not sign execution warrants.