Court must consider DNA tests requested by man who confessed to killing central Pa. teacher

By Dan Nephin, LNP, Lancaster, Pa. (TNS)

A state appeals court must reconsider its order upholding a Lancaster County judge’s refusal to allow Raymond Rowe to have DNA testing done on items used to kill school teacher Christy Mirack in 1992.

On Aug. 1, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court sent Rowe’s case back to state Superior Court based on a June ruling in the case of an Erie County man who was also seeking DNA testing of evidence related to his conviction in the 1993 murder of his former girlfriend.

In that case, the state Supreme Court determined that the state Superior Court did not use the current version of state law that broadened access to DNA testing, recognizing advances in the technology.

So the state Supreme Court vacated the state Superior Court’s order in Rowe’s case and di