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The New York State Court of Appeals is set to hear the appeal of Edward Mero, a former Albany city employee convicted of killing two women. Mero, who is currently serving a 50-year-to-life sentence, was convicted in 2017 for the murders of Megan Cunningham and Shelby Countermine. His two previous attempts to overturn the conviction were denied, but he maintains that a conflict impacted his case.
Mero, 37, was a former employee of the Albany Water Department. He was convicted for the murders of Cunningham, his former roommate, and Countermine, both of whom were 23 at the time of their deaths. The murders occurred less than two years apart. Mero's appeal is based on the argument that state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch erred by not holding separate trials for the two murders. His attorney, Matthew Hug, has argued that Lynch allowed prosecutors to combine "two underwhelming cases" into a single proceeding. However, the Appellate Division's Third Department rejected this argument in a 3-2 decision last year.
The appeal also involves another element: Mero's trial attorney, Cheryl Coleman, had paid one of Mero's prosecutors, former Albany County Assistant District Attorney Steven Sharp, to write appellate briefs in unrelated cases for four years. This arrangement was unknown to District Attorney David Soares and came to light several months after Mero's conviction. Sharp was subsequently suspended and later left the district attorney's office for private practice. Despite this conflict, Mero's conviction was upheld in March 2020.
The state Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the Edward Mero case on Thursday, according to NEWS10 ABC. The outcome of this appeal could have significant implications for Mero's case and potentially others in the state of New York.