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Tiffany Pritchett was convicted of murdering Troy Groomes, 25.  In March 1995, Dameon Isbell was caught trying to rob a Donora Uni-Mart with the gun that killed Groomes.  Once arrested, Isbell told state troopers he had witnessed Pritchett kill Groomes and then stole the gun from where she had stashed it.  He said Pritchett, who had no criminal record, sought revenge because Groomes had raped her.  Pritchett denied the rape allegation and told police she watched Isbell execute Groomes in a dispute over drugs.  After Isbell passed a polygraph test, his statement was used to charge Pritchett with murder.

Pritchett's attorney, Francis Sichko, allowed his client to be polygraphed while he was at a Pitt/Temple football game.  After the test, state troopers interrogated Pritchett.  They claimed the test proved her guilt.  "They started banging on the desk and hollering, trying to scare me and things like that, a lot of intimidation," said Pritchett.  Troopers claimed Pritchett confessed, although they did not take notes or ask her to sign a confession.  Pritchett denied the confession, but was convicted.

In 1998, Pritchett submitted an affidavit from an inmate stating that Isbell had bragged that he had gotten away with killing Groomes.  In 2006, when a judge was considering Pritchett's application for a new trial, the prosecutor offered her a deal:  If she dropped the appeal and pleaded guilty to a felony murder count, she would be released.  Pritchett declined the offer.  She won a new trial.  Rather than remain incarcerated through prosecution appeals of the new trial order, which could take years, Pritchett accepted a time-served plea deal in which she did not have to admit guilt.  (Post-Gazette)  [12/06]

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