State parole board drops opposition to release of man acquitted in retrial
Judge says Godesky’s 22 years served in prison exceed parole violation
Scott Godesky, acquitted this week of murder during a retrial in a 1996 homicide, is officially a free man. The state parole board Wednesday chose not to pursue an outstanding alleged parole violation.
Godesky, who had been serving a life sentence for a killing in Carrick, was found not guilty of murder charges Monday after a retrial. On Tuesday, he walked out of the Allegheny County Courthouse a free man for the first time in decades.
But Tuesday afternoon, members of the parole board informed Godeksy’s lawyers that they were asking him to turn himself in and return to prison.
On Wednesday morning Godeksy’s attorneys filed an emergency petition with Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani, arguing that because their client had already served 22 years in state prison, he had exceeded any time left on the alleged parole violation. Judge Mariani agreed.
“There’s no more freedom of his left to take.” Judge Mariani said. “Where there is no time left, I would find this would be a deprivation of freedom without due process of law.”
Godesky, 48, was found not guilty of killing Brian Mirenna, a 21- year- old Knoxville drug dealer. Godesky and co- defendant David Lehrman were convicted of killing Mirenna, but Lehrman came forward in a letter exonerating Godesky and taking sole responsibility for shooting Mirenna. During Godesky’s retrial, Lehrman testified that he alone killed Mirenna.
Lehrman and Godesky, however, dismembered Mirenna and buried his body parts in shallow graves. While a jury acquitted Godesky of murder, it found him guilty of abuse of a corpse, just as a jury had done in 1996.
That conviction triggered a parole violation of a 1990 theft conviction, for which Godesky had been sentenced to prison but was then paroled.
Judge Mariani found that even if Godesky were to be found guilty of a violation for committing a crime while on parole, and even if he were to be returned to prison to fill out his maximum term in the 1990 theft case in addition to his sentence for abuse of a corpse, that would amount to less time in prison than the 22 years he had already served.
After being released, Godesky said in a brief interview, “They finally came to the right decision.”
He said he was looking to move on with his life and go into construction or legal work.
“It’s kind of hard when you’re pushing 50,” Godesky said.
Godesky, who told the court that he would be staying with his father, said he had a steak dinner Tuesday night for the first time in years. He also said he had gotten only four hours of sleep in the past three days.