It reached a high of 8 degrees while they were there, and with 10 inches of snow on the ground, Petty and Maddox were caught unprepared. Maddox had visions of interviewing gangster types in that big northern city, but found a bunch of young people who had no significant criminal background. Still, they couldn't, or wouldn't, provide proof that Darnell Venable had come back with money he stole from Peter Spyropoulos. Leigh Drewry and Glenn Berger were appointed to defend Venable against the capital murder charge. Drewry was lead attorney, and while he had both defended and prosecuted accused murderers, this was his 1st capital case.
Capital murder requires more than a premeditated murder.
The crime has to be committed in connection with another violent crime, like robbery. Drewry knew robbery would be difficult for the commonwealth to prove, although Venable's girlfriend was a credible witness for the prosecution. But the death penalty also requires that the murder involve aggravated battery or future dangerousness. Aggravated battery means multiple gunshots or a particularly violent killing. The courts have ruled that one gunshot does not usually meet that test.