In an unusual and divided decision, a state Superior Court panel has ordered a county judge to resentence a convicted child porn possessor to a prison term that was set in a plea offer he rejected before his trial. The simple fact, Judge David N. Wecht wrote in the state court's majority opinion, is that repeat sex offender Steward Steckley Jr. got a raw deal. His attorney didn't know, and didn't tell the Pottsville man before his trial, that he could face a mandatory 25- to 50-year state prison sentence if convicted, Wecht noted. So Steckley rejected two plea deals from the...
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