A federal judge in Pittsburgh has denied former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin’s habeas corpus petition.
The decision comes one year after a federal magistrate judge recommended her petition be tossed. Orie Melvin had asked the federal court to overturn her state-court conviction for theft of services and other charges related to her use of state employees and equipment for the personal benefit of running her judicial campaigns. She was sentenced in 2013 to three years’ house arrest.
