YORK (WPMT)-York County District Attorney Tom Kearney is requesting Governor Tom Wolf grant the execution of a man convicted of kidnapping and murdering a teenage girl nearly 22 years ago.
Hubert L. Michael Jr., 58, is scheduled to be executed on June 5. He was convicted in 1994 and sentenced to die for abducting and killing 16-year-old Trista Eng, of Dillsburg.
Wolf imposed a moratorium in February on the death penalty in Pennsylvania. Wolf said the moratorium would stand until the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment, “has produced its recommendation and all concerns are addressed satisfactorily.”
Kearney wrote that “if there is to be a death sentence in this Commonwealth, Mr. Michael is the poster child for it to occur.”
The district attorney said that Michael has never denied kidnapping and killing Trista Eng. When Michael plead guilty, Kearney wrote, he told the court that he was angry about a pending rape case in Lancaster County and wanted to take his anger out on a woman.
Trista Eng was a totally innocent victim, simply walking to her summer job, Kearney said.
The district attorney wrote that granting a reprieve to Michael would make a mockery of the judicial system.
Background:
Michael kidnapped Trista Eng as she was walking along Route 15 to her job at the Hardee’s in Dillsburg on July 12, 1993. Michael tied up Eng and drove her to state game lands in Warrington Township. He shot Eng three times and hid her body in the woods.
In November 1993, Michael assumed the identity of another prisoner and escaped from Lancaster County Prison. He was later captured in New Orleans and returned to Pennsylvania in March 1994 to face rape, murder and other charges.