Robert P. Russell, the former Mahanoy City man serving a life sentence for murdering his Marine wife in March 1989 in Virginia, has lost another attempt to overturn his conviction.
In a six-page memorandum filed Monday in Harrisburg, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III dismissed Russell's latest petition and returned the case to the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
As a result, Russell will remain in the U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood, Lycoming County, where he is serving his sentence for killing Capt. Shirley Gibbs Russell on March 4, 1989, at the couple's home on the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va.
A jury convicted Robert Russell on May 3, 1991, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors said Robert Russell murdered his wife and dumped her body down a mine shaft along the Burma Road between Mahanoy City and Saint Clair. Shirley Russell's corpse never has been found; the case was the first in which federal prosecutors obtained a murder conviction without a body.
The case gained notoriety because of Robert Russell's preparation of a 26-step "recipe for murder" on a computer disk.
Robert Russell already has filed several unsuccessful challenges to his conviction.
In his memorandum, Jones ruled it is not clear whether the 4th Circuit dismissed Robert Russell's latest petition because it lacked merit or because it did not comply with federal court rules.
Therefore, Jones wrote, the defendant must refile his petition with the 4th Circuit to allow it to make a ruling.
Jones wrote that if Robert Russell is unsuccessful before the 4th Circuit, he will have another chance to file a petition in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Although the defendant was convicted in Virginia, the Middle District has jurisdiction because he is imprisoned in Lycoming County.