Corina Durkee, the Waldoboro woman convicted of murder in connection with the stabbing of two women in Waldoboro in April 2009 filed for post-conviction review earlier this year.
Justice William Anderson moved that petition forward on March 21, finding that Durkee “has stated at least one proper ground for post-conviction review,” according to court documents.
Durkee has been assigned an attorney, who will now have an opportunity to file an amended version of the petition. The state will then respond to the petition before any hearings are conducted.
If the petition is not thrown out before then, it may be about six months before any post-conviction review hearings are conducted, said Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea, who prosecuted Durkee’s case.
If Durkee receives post-conviction review, it’s possible that the court could order a retrial.
Durkee, 44, pleaded guilty to felony murder, attempted murder and burglary charges and received a 15-year sentence May 10, 2010.
According to documents filed in Lincoln County Superior Court early last month, Durkee is now petitioning the court to review her conviction and reduce her sentence on the grounds that she is innocent and only pleaded guilty because of inadequate legal representation.
Durkee and Earl “Buddy” Bieler, 26, also of Waldoboro, both pleaded guilty to the April 19, 2009, stabbing of Rachel Grindal, 27, and Tracey Neild, then 32. Grindal died from her wounds. Neild’s throat was cut, but she survived.
Durkee received a 15-year sentence for her involvement. Evidence shows that Durkee did not actually stab either of the victims, but her involvement was substantial enough to make her a knowing accomplice, Zainea said at the time of Durkee’s sentencing.
At her sentencing, both the prosecution and Durkee’s attorney, Phillip Cohen, recommended the 15-year sentence as part of a plea bargain in which Durkee pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of felony murder, attempted murder and burglary.
Now, Durkee says she would not have taken the plea deal if she had known about the evidence implicating Bieler in both attacks.
“My attorney withheld [facts about the case] from me making me believe that it was my word against the victim,” Durkee wrote in the petition for review. “The victim alleged that I sliced her throat and I alleged that I did not. My attorney never advised me that some of the DNA and Forensic results proved that I did not. I never found this out until I had already taken the plea agreement, was in court to get sentencing…”
The petition goes on to make numerous allegations that Cohen did not work with her during her incarceration prior to trial and that he “convinced me to take the plea agreement by scaring me and withholding [evidence].”
