CONVICTED MAN CLAIMS HE WAS VICTIM OF EFFORT OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY PROSECUTORS TO HIDE EVIDENCE

A man convicted twice of the 1999 murder of a man outside of a New Kensington bar is claiming that he was the victim of a systematic effort by Westmoreland County prosecutors to subvert and hide evidence.  The Trib reports that lawyers for 59-year-old Denard Galloway claimed at a hearing yesterday that the DA’s office withheld key evidence that would have lead to his acquittal.  Prosecutors claimed Galloway and an unidentified man shot and killed Terry Anderson in February of 1999.  He was originally convicted of first-degree murder following a trial in 2000 in which prosecutors unsuccessfully sought the death penalty.  That conviction was overturned in 2003 after a county judge ruled Galloway’s then-lawyers failed to provide a sufficient trial defense.  He was again convicted following a second trial in 2005 and sentenced to a life prison term.