Legal News

Death-Row Murderer Disbarred 9 Years After Conviction

By Brian Harris

By Zack Needles
Of the Legal Staff

Convicted murderer Richard Baumhammers' death warrant was signed before his disbarment order was.

In January, Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed a death warrant for the Pittsburgh immigration lawyer who was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and other crimes in 2001.

On July 30, more than six months after the death warrant was signed, the state Supreme Court issued an order to disbar Baumhammers.

According to the report and recommendations of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Baumhammers was arrested April 28, 2000, after he shot and killed five people and critically wounded a sixth with a .357 caliber magnum revolver in Allegheny and Beaver counties.

In June of 2000, the Supreme Court placed Baumhammers on temporary suspension, the board said.

In September 2001, Baumhammers received five death sentences and 112-and-a-half to 225 years in prison in Allegheny County court, according to the board.

A petition for discipline was filed against Baumhammers in June 2009 and a disciplinary hearing was held in November, the board said.

On Jan. 11, 2010, the hearing committee filed a report recommending disbarment and, according to media reports, Rendell signed Baumhammers' death warrant eight days later.

Media reports said Baumhammers was scheduled to die by lethal injection in March 2010, but was granted a stay in February by an Allegheny County judge after his lawyers filed post-conviction appeals.

On May 10, the disciplinary board filed a report signed by Chair Carl D. Buchholz III recommending that Baumhammers be disbarred, saying, "The gravity and magnitude of his crimes far exceed that which this board has dealt with in the past."

Baumhammers' conduct, the report continued, was "so reprehensible and outside the norms of societal convention that the only appropriate discipline is disbarment."

On July 30, the Supreme Court agreed.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 02, 2010 (boomark / email).