Retrial begins for man accused in 1980 fatal shooting
NORRISTOWN » Forty-one years after he was first accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in Norristown, Robert Fisher, previously tried and convicted twice for the crime, returned to a Montgomery County courtroom on Monday for a retrial that was ordered by a federal judge.
“It’s been 41 years. That’s a long time to wait for justice,” county Assistant District Attorney Tanner Beck argued during his opening statement to a jury of six men and six women as Fisher’s trial got underway. “It’s never too late to do justice.”
Beck and First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr. alleged Fisher committed first-degree murder, which is an intentional killing, when he fatally shot 26-year-old Linda Row
den, of Collegeville, in Norristown on July 10, 1980. If Fisher is convicted of the charge at retrial he faces life imprisonment.
Prosecutors alleged Rowden was killed as she drove her car along DeKalb Street in Norristown and Fisher, a back seat passenger in the car, leaned forward and shot Rowden in the neck and lower back with a revolver.
Prosecutors alleged Fisher killed Rowden to prevent her from giving information to police that could link Fisher to the 1980 murder of Nigel Anderson, a witness who had been scheduled to testify in a federal heroin case.
Given that decades have passed since Rowden’s death, several witnesses and some of the original investigators have since died, prosecutors revealed. Beck, who pointed out he wasn’t even born when the alleged crime occurred, explained to jurors that testimony witnesses gave at prior court proceedings will be read back to jurors during the retrial.
Jurors are expected to hear the prior testimony of three key witnesses, now all deceased, including a man who was a front seat passenger in Rowden’s car at the time, a woman who was on her porch and who allegedly observed Fisher run from the scene and Fisher’s girlfriend at the time to whom prosecutors alleged Fisher confessed.
Fisher, now 75, and formerly of the 600 block of DeKalb Street, showed no emotion as Beck addressed the jury. Fisher has proclaimed his innocence.
Defense lawyer Carrie L. Allman argued the three key witnesses provided inconsistent testimony and statements to detectives or were suffering from drug addiction and that their testimony cannot be trusted.
“These witnesses said very, very different things at different times. Why does everybody’s story change?” Allman, the chief homicide lawyer for the public defender’s office, said as she addressed jurors during her opening statement.
Allman argued Fisher did not kill Rowden and suggested Rowden was fatally shot by another Norristown man who was a passenger in Rowden’s car.
The retrial is expected to last several days before Judge Todd D. Eisenberg.
The jury is not aware that Fisher previously was tried and convicted twice for the crime and is the only person in Pennsylvania to be sentenced to death three times.
The latest twist in the 41-year-old case occurred in late 2019 when a federal judge overturned Fisher’s 1991 first-degree murder conviction and 1997 death sentence in connection with Rowden’s death.
U.S. District Court Judge Gene E.K. Pratter overturned Fisher’s conviction, ruling a county judge’s instruction on “reasonable doubt” and an example of the concept the judge recited during a 1991 trial was “constitutionally deficient” and “fatally flawed” and that Fisher’s lawyer should have objected to the instruction.
Pratter wrote, “given the blatant problems with this instruction, Mr. Fisher’s counsel was ineffective for failing to object and there is a reasonable probability of a different outcome in Mr. Fisher’s guilty phase trial.” Pratter concluded Fisher’s constitutional rights were violated by the instruction.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld Pratter’s decision on Jan. 17, 2020, sending Fisher’s case back to county court for a retrial.
Fisher’s 1997 death sentence also was overturned with Pratter ruling the aggravating factor relied on by prosecutors at the time was improperly applied.
Fisher’s conviction and death sentence previously were upheld by the state Supreme Court and Fisher’s appeals on the grounds his lawyers were ineffective also previously were denied by state courts.
Fisher, who has categorically denied any involvement in Rowden’s murder, wasn’t apprehended until the fall of 1987 in New York City.
Fisher was first convicted of Rowden’s murder in September 1988 and was sentenced to death. To win that conviction, prosecutors relied on Fisher’s previous conviction in federal court of violating Nigel Anderson’s civil rights.
In 1990, the state Supreme Court overturned the county murder conviction after a federal judge overturned Fisher’s federal civil rights conviction.
Fisher was then retried for Rowden’s murder in August 1991, convicted and sentenced to death a second time.
However, in June 1996, the state Supreme Court, while upholding the murder conviction, ruled Fisher should receive a new penalty hearing because jurors at his 1991 trial were improperly allowed to hear victim impact testimony from Rowden’s mother.
After a new penalty hearing in June 1997, Fisher was sentenced to death a third time.