8/10/18
by News Department on 08/10/18Champney leaves death row...
67 year old Ronald G. Champney left death row more than 26 years after he allegedly shot and killed a man in North Manheim Township.
The Republican Herald reports that Champney admitted this week that prosecutors could prove he committed the crime.
State police at Schuylkill Haven said Champney shot Roy Bensinger on June 4, 1992, in the driveway of his residence on Second Mountain Road.
A Schuylkill County jury on Oct. 25, 1999, found Champney guilty of all charges and sentenced him the next day to be executed.
However, President Judge William E. Baldwin overturned Champney’s conviction on June 3, 2008, and granted him a new trial, ruling he had not received effective legal representation.
Champney has now pleaded no contest to third-degree murder and is sentenced to serve 10 to 20 years in a state correctional institution.
He has been incarcerated on death row at SCI/Greene.
