MORGANTOWN - Greene County (Pa.) District Attorney Marjorie Fox did not file the necessary paperwork to declare an intent to seek the death penalty against the repeat DUI offender accused of driving drunk and killing Monongalia County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Todd May.
Jerod Alan Green, 35, of Morgantown, is charged with first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, criminal homicide, and homicide by vehicle while DUI, among a litany of other charges for the Feb. 18 crash on Interstate 79, just over the Pennsylvania border, and the alleged pursuit that preceded it.
Fox did not answer specifically when asked what her decision was in the case regarding the death penalty and how she came to the decision.
However, she previously said that, in order to pursue the death penalty, the state must file a notice of aggravating circumstances prior to the formal arraignment, which had been scheduled for Monday, but was waived at Green's attorney's request. Fox noted in an email Monday that the state did not file the notice prior to the arraignment.
She cited a section of state code that reiterates that the notice must be filed prior to the formal arraignment except when a district attorney becomes aware of aggravating circumstances at a later date.
"Other than that, it is not the policy of this office to comment on pending prosecutions," Fox said by email.
Green's attorney, John Bongivengo, did not respond in time for this report.
The death penalty is legal in Pennsylvania by means of lethal injection, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said. No one has been executed since 1999.
Green is charged with two offenses that carry the possibility of the death penalty upon conviction, according to the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association. Those are first-degree murder - the most serious form of criminal homicide - and first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer. A sheriff 's deputy who witnessed the crash previously testified that, as Green entered Interstate 79 south while fleeing police, it sounded as though his vehicle accelerated. Green then made a straight line across both southbound lanes before striking May's vehicle, which was parked in the median, the deputy said. Green's attorney, however, contends that Green did not intentionally hit May's vehicle.
Frankie May, Sgt. May's brother, said his family wants to make sure that Todd didn't die in vain as he strove to protect the public.
He said the district attorney has assured them that she will do everything within her power to see that justice is served in Sgt. May's death.
Green, who hails from Oklahoma, has been convicted of DUI in that state five times from 1998 to 2007, which includes convictions of third-offense DUI and subsequent-offense DUI, according to court records.
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