NORRISTOWN – Tried and convicted twice, and the only person in Pennsylvania to be sentenced to death three times, Robert Fisher will return to a Montgomery County courtroom in September for a retrial, ordered by a federal judge, for the alleged 1980 fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend in Norristown.
Montgomery County Court Judge Todd D. Eisenberg set the stage for Fisher’s retrial to get underway when he recently denied a defense motion to bar the retrial on the grounds it would violate Fisher’s right to be free from double jeopardy, his rights to due process and a fair trial and his right to confront witnesses.
Fisher, now 74, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the July 10, 1980, fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend, 26-year-old Linda Rowden, of Collegeville, as she drove her car along DeKalb Street in Norristown.
Eisenberg said Fisher’s retrial will get underway on Sept. 20 with jury selection. The retrial is slated to last about five days.
“The parties are directed to properly notify any necessary witnesses and to have them available to testify when needed,” Eisenberg wrote in a scheduling order.
All jury trials were suspended in the county in March 2020 as a precaution when the coronavirus pandemic surfaced. With vaccinations increasing and the COVID-19 positivity rate decreasing in the county, judges are beginning to schedule jury trials once again.
Given that decades have passed since Rowden’s death, witnesses and some of the original investigators may have since died or relocated, potentially presenting challenges for prosecutors at the retrial. But if witnesses are unavailable because they’re dead or because they’re incapacitated in some fashion, it’s likely their notes of testimony from prior proceedings will be admitted as evidence and read back to jurors during the retrial.
First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr. and co-prosecutor Tanner Beck are handling the case. Defense lawyer Carrie L. Allman, the chief homicide lawyer for the public defender’s office, represents Fisher.
If he’s convicted of first-degree murder a third time, Fisher, who is now 74, will face a sentence of life imprisonment. Prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty against Fisher at the retrial.
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.
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.
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.
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.
