Woman sentenced in Greensburg torture slaying pleads for clemency

The Greensburg woman who testified against her roommates in connection with the 2010 torture slaying of a mentally disabled friend has applied for clemency, saying she wants to rejoin society.

Amber Meidinger, 29, filed paperwork last month with the state’s Board of Pardons, seeking early termination of her 40- to 80-year prison sentence imposed in 2013 after she pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for her involvement in the stabbing death of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty.

“I am seeking clemency because I want to be granted a second chance at living my life outside … ,” Meidinger wrote.

Meidinger is an inmate at the State Correctional Institute at Muncy, near Williamsport, and is not eligible for parole until February 2050.

Westmoreland County prosecutors originally sought the death penalty against Meidinger but backed off that effort after she testified in the trials of three of her co-defendants; two were eventually sentenced to death.

During those trials Meidinger recounted her role in helping to torture Daugherty. She encouraged two others to stab her to death after more than two days of a captivity in an apartment the group briefly shared.

Meidinger testified in great detail about how the group beat and humiliated Daugherty, stripped her naked, tied her to a chair, forced her to drink concoctions of bodily fluids, cleaning products and feces, and then convened “family meetings” in which they voted to have her killed.

She also confessed to watching her fiance, whose baby she gave birth to after her arrest, rape Daugherty and then watch as he and another man stabbed her until she was dead. The group then stuffed Daugherty’s body, which was bound with Christmas lights and garland, into a plastic trash container and left it under a truck in a snow-covered parking lot.

“I don’t know why I did what I did,” Meidinger wrote. “I can’t give you an excuse for my actions. All I can say is I made many bad choices which I’m ashamed of.”

Her request for clemency could take more than a year to make its way through the process set up by the state’s pardons board.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman serves as the chairman of the board. His spokeswoman, Christina Kauffman, said Thursday only that Meidinger’s application will be processed and reviewed.

“There is a backlog in cases that’s at least a year,” Kauffman said.

She said that if a majority of the five-member board agrees to move the application forward, Meidinger’s request will be fully investigated, which includes personal interviews, a psychological evaluation and a full review of her case.

Unanimous support from the pardons board is required before the case is brought to Gov. Tom Wolf, who would make the final determination if clemency is granted.

The pardons board so far this year has received 565 requests for pardons and conducted 382 merit reviews of cases. It convened 263 public hearings and recommended pardons be granted in 208 cases.

The governor granted 58 pardons this year and 283 in 2018, according to board statistics.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway, who has presided over all of the trials for those charged with Daugherty’s murder and imposed Meidinger’s sentence, said in a one-paragraph letter to the pardons board that she opposed the clemency request.

“I am adamantly opposed to any public hearing and certainly opposed to any clemency for Amber Meidinger,” Hathaway wrote. She later added: “She received a fair sentence after pleading guilty. There is no reason that clemency should ever be considered.”

District Attorney John Peck said he also won’t support Meidinger’s request.

“This is one of the most horrific crimes that occurred in this county in the last 50 years,” Peck said. “This office won’t cooperate with her request for clemency.”

Meidinger’s request represents a change of heart. During a 2015 court appearance, Meidinger said she would drop an appeal seeking a new trial in an effort to reduce her sentence.

“I appreciate my sentence,” she told the judge.

Melvin Knight, 30, of Swissvale, and Ricky Smyrnes, 33, of North Huntingdon, were convicted of first-degree murder for Daugherty’s torture and stabbing and both were sentenced to death.

Angela Marinucci, who was 17 at the time of Daugherty’s killing, was convicted of first-degree murder and twice sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Marinucci, now 27, is scheduled to appear before Hathaway on Dec. 17 for a third sentencing hearing after state appeals courts ruled her life sentence was unconstitutional.

Two others, Robert Masters, 46, and his girlfriend, Peggy Darlene Miller, 36, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. Masters is serving a 30- to 70-year prison sentence and Miller is serving a sentence of 35 to 74 years in prison.