PHILADELPHIA, May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Blaming "rank speculation" and "misleading" trial transcript recitations by a New Jersey Prosecutor's Office -- not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt -- the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ordered a writ of habeas corpus for businessman Paul Kamienski who has been imprisoned serving two life sentences since 1989, Attorney Timothy J. McInnis announced.
Kamienski, a yacht-owning North Jersey businessman was convicted of murder by the Ocean County, New Jersey, Prosecutor for an alleged role in a highly publicized 1983 Jersey shore double homicide.
McInnis has represented Kamienski for a decade. The attorney hailed yesterday's victory as the first habeas of its kind in the Circuit, made even more rare since the imposition of tough new federal appeal standards requiring deference to be given to state courts under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA") which was passed five years before the 911 attacks.
The unanimous three-judge Circuit Court panel sternly criticized the N.J. (State) Appellate Division of Superior Court for failing to understand Kamienski's case to begin with. The N.J. Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court in Trenton also were criticized in the opinion.
"The Appellate Division's decision was an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court precedent requiring proof of each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt," the Circuit decision stated.
During oral arguments April 16th the judges pressed Supervising Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Samuel Mazzarella but he could not provide a scintilla of evidence from the trial record that Kamienski was aware the robbery or murders would take place, McInnis said.
"However, based on our review of the evidence, the picture is simply not there and its existence can not be inferred absent the kind of guesswork that due process prohibits. Indeed, we can not accept the state's view of the evidence without choking all vitality from the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt," according to the opinion. Later in the opinion the Court said, "The government's arguments to the contrary rely not on inferences but on speculation."
Under court rules the Prosecutor's Office has 14 days to file a petition for reconsideration by the three judges and / or the full Court, McInnis explained.
"If the prosecutor does not file a petition for reconsideration Paul can walk out of South Woods State Prison a free man after all these years. It's a bittersweet victory for him. His parents and many of his friends and relatives are now dead."
Kamienski's co-defendant, Anthony Alongi, remains in prison. Joseph Marzeno, the triggerman, died in New Jersey State Prison in the early 1990's. Kamienski knew them only casually and had met each only a month before the crime.
For more information about Paul Kamienski's case http://www.ReleasePaulNow.com has been updated to include the opinion, the oral arguments transcript and recordings, in addition to recent video of Kamienski in his own words taken at the prison.
The vicinage for the Kamienski case and its filed documents is U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, Case Number: 3:02 CV 03091 (SRC), Kamienski v. Hendricks, Administrator NJ State Prison. The federal appellate Case Number: 06-4536.
SOURCE Law Office of Timothy J. McInnis, Esq.
