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Thursday, August 31, 2006

Ind. Courts - More on: "Man on trial in Clark for 1980 rapes"

Updating Tuesday's ILB entry, today Dick Kaukas of the Louisville Courier Journal reports:

After six hours of deliberations, a Clark County jury yesterday convicted an Evansville man of rape and deviate criminal conduct in a case that dated to December 1980.

But the jury of 10 women and two men also acquitted the defendant, Thomas N. Schiro, 45, of the same charges involving a case from September 1980. * * *

Schiro is now serving the final months of a 60-year sentence for raping and murdering Laura Luebbehusen in February 1981. He originally had been sentenced to death in that case, but the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the sentence in 1996, saying the trial judge improperly imposed the death penalty after the jury decided against it.

Instead, the court sentenced Schiro to 60 years, which meant that with credit for good behavior his term could be cut in half and he likely would have been released in about six months.

Because of the original death sentence, Schiro was not tried on either of the 1980 rape cases previously. But Stanley Levco, the Vanderburgh County prosecutor, decided to prosecute Schiro on the charges now in an effort to prevent his release.

There is no statute of limitations on rape in Indiana. The deviate criminal conduct charge covers cases in which victims allegedly were forced to submit to oral or anal sex.

The charges were based on incidents that occurred in the same Evansville house. The woman in the September 1980 case had moved out before the December attack occurred on a different woman. * * *

Robert Canada, Schiro's lawyer, said he intended to file an appeal, contending that parts of a journal written in 1981 by his client in support of an insanity plea should not have been allowed into evidence.

Kate Braser of the Evansville Courier& Press has this story today. Some quotes:
Schiro was an initial suspect in the [1980] rapes but was not charged because in 1981 he was convicted in the murder of Evansville resident Laura Luebbenhusen.

He originally was sentenced to death, but that penalty was reduced on appeal to straight prison time. With that term scheduled to end in February, Prosecutor Stan Levco reopened the rape cases. The trial was moved to Clark County because of pretrial publicity. * * *

[Defense attorney Robert Canada] said he will appeal the verdict.

Throughout the trial, Canada said there was no question whether the two women were raped, but the question was whether Schiro was their attacker.

Prosecutors had to convince the jury based on the victim's testimony and four excerpts extracted from a 39-page handwritten autobiography Schiro wrote in 1981 that mentions unspecified rapes, sex acts and thoughts of rape. Scientific evidence such as DNA was not available in the case because of its age.

"There was no proof beyond a reasonable doubt," Canada said as he left the courthouse.

Canada said he believes Schiro's diary should not have been admitted in the trial.

"Normally an appeal is a desperate measure but in this case it's not," he said. "The letter was admitted even though it had nothing to do with these cases."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 31, 2006 06:28 AM
Posted to Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions