Zagranski was convicted for the 1988 murder of Michael Molin in Amherst.
NORTHAMPTON – More than 20 years after his conviction for murder, Richard M. Zagranski is seeking a new trial.
John J. Barter, hired by Zagranski three years ago, argued his motions Friday afternoon before Judge Richard Carey in Hampshire Superior Court.
Carey heard from him for about an hour and then listened to Assistant District Attorney Thomas H. Townsend oppose the motions.
A Hampshire Superior Court jury found Zagranski, formerly of Chicopee, guilty of first-degree murder in the Feb. 19, 1988, shooting death of Michael Molin, a 30-year-old Granby man. Molin died of five gunshot wounds to the back.
The state Supreme Judicial Court upheld the conviction but ruled that then Hampshire County Superior Court Judge Raymond R. Cross, who heard the trial, had made some errors in admitting evidence and instructing the jury but that the errors were not serious enough to warrant overturning the conviction.
"The evidence against the defendant is so overwhelming that the error is insignificant," the court wrote. "There was evidence that the defendant planned the murder to acquire the victim's land at no cost; . . . the defendant was seen in the woods in Amherst standing over the victim's bloody body holding a shotgun; . . . and, finally, following his arrest and after being advised of his rights, be made an admission ('I guess this means Michael showed up dead.')."
But Barter contended in court that his client did not have the attorney he wanted and that attorney James Smith never even spoke to Zagranski before the appeal and that a fellow inmate told Zagranski that his case had been turned down.
Also Smith had been suspended but was allowed to continue with the appeal but his client never knew, Barter said.
“The appeal was woefully in adequate,” he said. And he said had Smith better represented his client “the evidence (at his trial) might not have been overwhelming.”
He said a better attorney might have provided better questioning and cross examining of witnesses, he said.
When Carey questioned why the case was coming forward now, Barter told him that he was hired three years ago and it had taken him that long to go through the transcripts. He said his client and his family had been tracking transcripts for a number of years.
“The wheels of justice turn slowly,” he said.
At the very least, Barter said he wanted to be able to present witnesses at an evidentiary hearing in support of his request for a new trial.
Townsend also questioned bringing the request forward now 22 years later and that there was overwhelming evidence to support Zagranski’s conviction. “There is insufficient evidence to warrant an evidentiary hearing.” He said.
Zagranski, who’s 49 now, is at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum-security facility in Shirley.