This Day in History: 1965-03-30

Edgar H. Smith was denied a new trial in a hearing at the County Court House, but it seemed likely that a sixth in a series of stays of execution would be granted in the case.  Smith had been in the death house of the Trenton State Prison for nearly eight years after his conviction in 1957 for the murder of Victoria Zielinski in a Mahwah sandpit.  Smith, acting as his own attorney claimed a variety of procedural errors in his prosecution.  The judge maintained that all of these had been dealt with in previous appeals.  Smith’s case, which had attracted nationwide attention, had led to three unsuccessful appeals to the New Jersey Supreme Court and one to the US Supreme Court.

(Bristow)