Feb 22, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – A Greene County judge ordered a temporary stay on the execution of Jeffrey Robert Martin while the child murderer and rapist appeals his conviction and death sentence.

Judge Louis Dayich ordered the stay Feb. 9, two weeks after the state Department of Corrections took the administrative step to issue a death warrant for Martin and scheduled his execution date for March 16.

DOC Secretary John Wetzel signed the notice of execution for Martin as required by state law when the governor refuses. Even with the execution date set, there was little chance Martin would be put to death any time soon because he was still undergoing appeals and Gov. Tom Wolf issued a moratorium on all executions in Pennsylvania.

Martin, 58, of New Geneva, was convicted of the June 13, 2006, raping and strangling 12-year-old Gabrielle Bechen after she left her home on an all-terrain vehicle to visit the nearby Dunkard Township farm where Martin worked as a farmhand. A Greene County jury found Martin guilty on all counts, including first-degree murder, rape and aggravated indecent assault, following a six-day trial in May 2008. He was sentenced to death the following day.

Martin claims in the post-conviction relief appeal he filed Jan. 19 in Greene County Court that his court-appointed defense was ineffective, there was prosecutorial misconduct and evidence was withheld, among other issues. He did not elaborate and wrote he needs legal assistance from an attorney.

Dayich earlier this month assigned Pittsburgh-based attorney Thomas Farrell to represent Martin through the post-conviction appeal phase.

Farrell said he was still reviewing the case and could not comment on the appeal

“It’s a death penalty case so obviously it will take some time to review,” Farrell said.

Martin, who is being held at SCI-Graterford, wrote very little in his seven-page filing and said he needed legal assistance to answer several questions. He is requesting a new trial in his appeal.

In his order, Dayich directed Farrell to review Martin’s appeal and modify it if necessary no later than mid-March.

Martin filed a writ of habeas corpus Dec. 8 in federal court in Pittsburgh, asking it to review his conviction, but that court pushed his appeal back to Greene County Court. Greene County President Judge Farley Toothman originally rejected Martin’s post-conviction relief request since he filed it after the initial Dec. 24 deadline.

Toothman then assigned the case to Dayich after Martin filed the proper paperwork Jan. 19.