Killer's appeal for release refused

PITTSBURGH, July 29 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania man convicted of killing his brother when he was 14 has had an appeal for release from prison rejected, authorities say.

Ian Bishop, now 22, argued in an appeal heard by U.S. Magistrate Robert Mitchell in Pittsburgh that he should have been tried as a juvenile for the 2002 bludgeoning death of his 18-year-old brother Adam, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Thursday.

Bishop is serving 20 to 40 years in prison for third-degree murder.

His attorney argued the judge in Bishop's trial should have transferred the case to juvenile court because Bishop was a juvenile at the time.

In April 2002, Bishop and a friend, Robert Laskowski, struck Adam Bishop in the head with the claw hammer 18 times, then placed his body in a bathtub.

Laskowski is serving eight to 20 years in prison for his role.

In 2002, Westmoreland County Judge Debra Pezze ruled the "public interest would not be served" by moving the case to juvenile court because of the brutality of the killing.

In rejecting the appeal, Mitchell said Pezze's decision was based on state law "and as such is not amenable to consideration here."

Bishop has not exhausted his state court remedies and cannot raise them in federal court, Mitchell ruled.

"Reasonable jurists could not conclude that a basis for appeal exists," Mitchell ruled.