JEANNETTE MAN’S ATTORNEY’S SEEKING TO BAR NEW TESTIMONY IN 31 YEAR OLD ARSON CASE

Attorneys for a former Jeannette man convicted of first degree murder connected with a fire 30 years ago are seeking to bar new testimony about how the fire started.  The Trib reports that 57-year-old James Young was convicted in 1995 of setting the fire in 1993 that killed his wife and two children.  Prosecutors have maintained Young spread gasoline in and around the home and set the fatal fire. They have sought to elicit new testimony from a former U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent to bolster the claim that the blaze was an arson.  Young’s new lawyers from the Pennsylvania Innocence Project have argued the convictions should be vacated and a new trial convened. They claim the jury’s guilty verdicts were based on conclusions made from now-debunked science used decades ago to determine the origins of a fire.