One of two local inmates on Pennsylvania's death row is dead. David Copenhefer, 65, died Sunday of natural causes at the state prison in Greene County.
Copenhefer was sentenced to death by an Erie County jury for the 1988 kidnapping and murder of Sally Weiner, 37, the wife of a Corry banker. It was part of a scheme by Copenhefer to extort money.
Just last year, a federal appeals court upheld that sentence, after considering arguments from Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri.
Daneri says he credits the prosecutors that were on the case when it began in 1988. Even though Daneri has been on the case for a little over a year, he says, Copenhefer's death, met with what he feels was a just punishment.
"Since we were seeking the death penalty, and we believed that he deserved death," said Daneri. "The fact that he's now dead, I don't know if to call it 'fitting,' but it certainly meets with what we believed was a just punishment for him. So he's met his maker now."
Daneri did say that while Copenhefer's death means the case is over, he says it will never be over for the Weiner Family.
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