Harvey Miguel Robinson

Case record: Harvey Miguel Robinson

Harvey Miguel Robinson was sentenced to death on November 10, 1994, for three murder cases, after being convicted in November 1994 of raping and murdering three people during an 11-month period in 1992 and 1993. Robinson was 19 years old when he was arrested.

Victims and offences

Robinson raped and killed three women:

• Joan Burghardt, a 29-year-old nurse's aide, was raped and bludgeoned in her east Allentown home in August 1992.
• Charlotte Schmoyer, a 15-year-old newspaper carrier, was abducted, raped and stabbed in June 1993. A heavily wooded area nearby was where Charlotte's body was found the same afternoon.
• Jessica Jean Fortney, a 47-year-old grandmother, was raped and strangled in July 1993.

A fourth victim, Denise Sam-Cali, was raped and beaten in her home shortly after Schmoyer's killing, but escaped alive. Robinson repeatedly returned to her house. On July 31, a police officer who was waiting for Denise's attacker exchanged gunfire with Robinson. Robinson was tracked to a local hospital where he had sought treatment for injuries and was arrested.

Investigation and arrest

Robinson was linked to the killings by DNA evidence. He was tracked to a local hospital, where he was arrested after seeking treatment for injuries.

Trial

A jury convicted Robinson and imposed separate death sentences for all three murders. A county judge vacated two of the death sentences on technical grounds involving the jury's consideration of aggravating circumstances.

Robinson also pleaded guilty to attempted homicide and burglary in an attack on another Allentown woman in June 1993, and to a pair of subsequent attempted break-ins at her home.

Sentencing

Robinson received three death sentences and was sentenced to death on November 10, 1994 for the three murder cases.

In June 2001, Lehigh County Judge Edward Reibman upheld Robinson's murder convictions but threw out the death sentences in the Burghardt and Schmoyer killings, citing improper sentencing instructions given to the jury by the trial judge.

In December 2004, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence in the Fortney case and the first-degree murder convictions in the other cases, which returned the cases to Lehigh County Court.

On April 4 (scheduled), the execution of Robinson was stayed by a judge.

On April 25, 2006, a judge resentenced Robinson to life in prison for the rape and murder of his first victim, Joan Burghardt. Robinson went on to kill two other people. Two of the three death sentences he received were later overturned on appeal.

Appeals

A 6-0 decision Thursday upheld three murder convictions and one death sentence for Harvey Miguel Robinson. The court upheld death penalty outcomes in one of the three slayings while other death sentences had been overturned.

Justice Sandra Schultz Newman wrote a 93-page opinion that scolded Robinson's legal team for raising more than 60 substantive issues in their appeal, including issues characterized as boilerplate reincarnations of arguments previously rejected by the state courts.

“It appears that present counsel for appellant has made a deliberate attempt to overwhelm this court in an elaborate, legal conundrum,” Newman said...

One of Robinson's lawyers, Philip Lauer of Easton, did not rule out asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision.

Execution warrant and stays

A Governor Ed Rendell execution warrant was signed and an execution date was scheduled for April 4. Gladys Burghardt and her husband Stanley heard that the execution date for Robinson had been set for April 4.

Gladys Burghardt said:

“I'm 83 now and it's not beneficial to my health, or my husband's health, to dwell on it. We only have a short time left, and we need to make the most of it.”

When Gladys and Stanley heard that Governor Ed Rendell had set an execution date for Robinson of April 4, Gladys said:

“This is something that's been waiting to happen, that this monster is put out of the world.”

Gladys Burghardt also said the setting of the execution date would lead to a stay while the next phase of appeals was carried out:

“I wish they would get it over with,” said Gladys Burghardt, who is baffled by the notion that the killer has been able to escape execution this long.

“What good is the legal system if it doesn't carry out its threats?” she said.

“How can someone like Harvey Robinson control the legal system?”

Denise Sam-Cali, who owned a Lehigh Valley transportation company, said:

“We move on,” she said.

“He's useless to society, so if they do put him to death, there's no loss.”

A Lehigh County district attorney said he would seek two additional death penalties now that the state's highest court upheld the death sentence in one of the three slayings. District Attorney James B. Martin said:

“These were horrific killings, and I just thought the death penalty was appropriate under the circumstances,”

and:

“I still think it's appropriate.”

After the execution warrant was set, the execution was stayed by a judge.

Other details

Robinson's motive was recorded as “Sex.” His method of operation was recorded as “Rape-slayer of females age 13-47.” Robinson was described as “Rape-slayer of females age 13-47” and as a “serial killer” who terrorized Allentown in the early 1990s.

The case included references to “The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania opinion J-36-2003.” Robinson was also described as “Allentown's first serial killer” and as “thought to be one of the youngest serial killers in history.”

Robinson was thought to have been one of the youngest serial killers in the nation's history at the time of arrest. It was also described that only three people had been executed in Pennsylvania since the death penalty was re-instated in 1978.