Severcool resentencing date awaits state’s high court decision

BY STACI WILSON

Over 30 years after she was sentenced to serve life in prison without parole for the first degree murder of her parents and one brother, Roxanne Severcool’s future is now tied to a case in front of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Severcool was supposed to appear Friday in Susquehanna County Court to be re-sentenced. That hearing has been put on hold by President Judge Kenneth Seamans pending the outcome of the state’s high court decision in Commonwealth vs. Cunningham.

Severcool, now 49 years old, was 17 years and 10 months when she, along with her then boyfriend, Robert Fadden, killed Lester Severcool, 43; Mary Severcool, 38; and Ted Severcool, 10, on August 19-20, 1980 by shooting them in their home with a .22-caliber rifle. Another son, James, was also shot but survived.

Severcool was sentenced in February 1982 to serve life in prison without parole after being convicted by a jury on three counts of first degree murder.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that mandatory life without parole sentences for murders committed by juvenile offenders were “cruel and unusual” and were unconstitutional in Miller vs.Alabama.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miller unleashed the possibility for about 500 Pennsylvania inmates serving life in prison terms for crimes committed as juveniles to seek re-sentencing.

The Cunningham case is slated for arguments today (Wednesday, Sept. 12) before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

As part of the case, the court will make a determination as to whether or not Miller applies retroactively.

If Miller is found to have a retroactive effect, Severcool will then be re-sentenced in the murders.

Fadden, who was 24 at the time of crime and the shooter, was sentenced, also in Feb. 1982, to serve three consecutive life terms following a jury conviction.

Since her arrest, Severcool has been incarcerated – first in the juvenile system and then the adult state prison system.