U.S. Supreme Court upholds Bucks County killer’s death sentence in 1987 hate crime

The nation’s highest court has denied an appeal from a Bristol Township man who was twice convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in a homophobic hate crime.

Richard Laird, 62, had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his murder conviction and death sentence in the 1987 killing of Anthony Milano, saying his lawyers had failed to properly present evidence of the sexual abuse and trauma Laird experienced in his childhood.

The high court declined his request and upheld earlier decisions by state and federal courts affirming his guilt.

Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said in a statement Wednesday that she was pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision and hoped it would bring closure to Milano’s loved ones.

Milano’s attorney, Joseph W. Luby, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Laird killed Milano after a night spent drinking at the Edgeley Inn on Dec. 15, 1987, according to court testimony. Laird bullied Milano, forced him to buy drinks for him and a friend, and mocked him while spouting homophobic slurs, witnesses said.

Milano, who was gay, later agreed to give Laird a ride home despite a warning from the bartender, who told him Laird didn’t need a ride because he lived only a few hundred yards from the bar.

After leaving the bar, Laird severely beat Milano and killed him with a box cutter, according to evidence presented at trial.

Milano’s body was later found in a wooded area in Bristol Township. He had suffered too many slash wounds to count, according to court documents, and his head had been nearly severed from his body.

Laird’s drinking buddy, Frank Chester, told acquaintances that Laird had killed Milano and had told him that he and his brother planned to torch Milano’s vehicle, according to evidence presented at Laird’s trial.

A year later, a Bucks County jury convicted Laird of first- and second-degree murder and sentenced him to death. Chester was later convicted of first-degree murder and was also sentenced to death for helping Laird attack Milano.

In 2001, a federal judge overturned Laird’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence, saying evidence that he had been physically and sexually abused as a child should have been presented at trial. The judge upheld Laird’s conviction of second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison.

At Laird’s retrial in Doylestown in 2007, he confessed to killing Milano but offered a mental-health defense, saying his heightened blood-alcohol content at the time of the murder — 0.45 — and brain damage from old injuries made him act in a diminished capacity.

A jury was not swayed and took less than two hours to convict him of first-degree murder and sentence him to death.

Pennsylvania has a moratorium on the death penalty, so Laird will remain on death row for the foreseeable future.