Execution in gay hate murder is on hold

This month's scheduled execution of twice-convicted Bucks County murderer Richard Laird has been put on hold.

On March 14, Gov. Corbett signed a death warrant calling for Laird to be executed next Thursday for the slaying of Levittown artist Anthony Milano in 1987.

Two Bucks County juries - one in 1988 and another in 2007 - have convicted and sentenced Laird, 47, to death for his role in the torture killing. Prosecutors say Milano, 26, was targeted because he was gay.

On April 18, Bucks County Court Judge Rea B. Boylan granted a stay of execution while Laird's attorneys pursue post-conviction appeals.

Boylan gave Laird's lawyers until June 17 to file an amended petition, and set an Oct. 17 deadline for prosecutors to respond.

A day later, U.S. District Court Judge Jan E. DuBois followed suit, granting a stay in federal court.

For Laird, it is a second round of appeals stemming from a second death sentence.

In 2001, DuBois had overturned Laird's original conviction on a number of grounds. He was retried in 2007, convicted anew, and sentenced once again to death.

Convicted with Laird in 1988 was his drinking buddy, Frank Chester of Tullytown, who also received a death sentence. Chester's conviction also was overturned recently, but prosecutors are still contesting that decision.

The case drew wide notoriety because it was among the first to draw attention to gay-bashing in this area. Prosecutors said Milano had been accosted by Chester and Laird in a bar, harassed because he was gay, and forced to drive them home.

Milano was found dead along a road in Bristol Township, beaten and slashed in the throat so many times that his spinal cord was severed.