Man receives clemency in 1993 killing

NORTH FAYETTE TWP., Pa. — Twenty-six years after the shooting death Daniel Bostedo, one of the men charged with his killing has been released from prison.

Earlier this month, Gov. Tom Wolf granted clemency to 13 offenders serving life in prison, including Eric Eisen. Eisen had spent more than a quarter of a century in prison after being convicted in Bostedo’s death during a botched armed robbery in February 1993 in North Fayette Township.

He was arrested with James Smith, who was also sentenced to life in prison. Court documents describe Bostedo as a small-time drug dealer who was held up moments before he was shot just off of Old North Branch Road.

The suspects told investigators they did not intend to kill him, and Eisen didn’t pull the trigger.

In the release announcing the decision Wolf said, “they now have a chance to begin a life outside of prison that I hope is fulfilling for each of them.”

But that hope is long gone for the Bostedo family, who believes the system failed them.

“He gets to leave prison and the only way I can visit my brother is up the hill at his gravestone,” said Thomas Bostedo, Daniel’s brother. “Didn’t even think about the family. Nobody reached out to the family to ask their opinion or anything like that. Not saying Danny was a saint. But did he deserve to die? No, he didn’t deserve that.”

Tommy Bostedo has been wrestling with his brother’s death for nearly three decades.

“Can my family see their brother? Can my dad see his son? No, never. We’ve got to go up and look at black tombstone. It’s not, the system is not right. It didn’t work for us,” he said.

In a brief statement a spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office said “there’s no doubt that Eric Eisen directed the murder of Daniel Bostedo and participated in the murder of Daniel Bostedo.”

As for the rules regarding clemency, Eisen will be in a halfway house for a year before being placed on parole which he’ll remain on for life.

Man wanted in Mercer Co. found dead after allegedly shooting police officer in Arkansas Man wanted in Mercer Co. found dead after allegedly shooting police officer in Arkansas

Cox Media Group