Brighton ax murder case reaches final chapter as court refuses posthumous appeal

It has been 40-plus years since the "Brighton ax murder," a year since the conviction of James Krauseneck Jr. for murdering his wife, and five months since Krauseneck's death in prison, but, now, the criminal case may truly have reached an end point.

New York's highest court, the state Court of Appeals, has refused to consider a posthumous appeal by Krauseneck's family and lawyers. With his death, Krauseneck's indictment was dismissed and conviction tossed out, a move that prosecutors said was mandated by New York law.

Cathleen Krauseneck was killed by a single ax blow to her head as she slept in her Brighton home in February 1982. Her husband, James, was not indicted until late 2019.

Under state law, a conviction is erased if the convicted person dies with an appeal pending — a long-entrenched legal principle known as the "abatement doctrine."

Krauseneck's family, however, did not want the conviction dismissed upon his death. Instead, his attorneys thought they had legitimate legal grounds for appeal and wanted those issues heard.

"To date, Jim Krauseneck has been shut out from any review of his trial," his attorney, William Easton, said in an earlier interview. "No court has examined the delay of his trial and the insufficiency of the trial evidence."

Krauseneck died from esophageal cancer in prison in May. He was serving a sentence of 25 years to life. He was 71 years old.

The District Attorney's Office argued that the law is clear in New York, based on multiple precedents, and there were not legal grounds for further appellate arguments. The DA's office agreed to the dismissal under the "abatement doctrine."

Krauseneck's attorneys maintained that prosecutors and police let the case lag for nearly 40 years before his 2019 indictment, leading to an unfair trial. Witnesses died and suspects were ignored during those decades, the lawyers contended.

Before the 2022 trial Schiano ruled that the decades between the murder and arrest would not sully the trial. Some records related to the crime were read into the record since the witnesses or those who created the records were dead.

Known locally as the "Brighton ax murder," the criminal case was the focus the of three true-crime episodes on television and the basis of a novel that in turn became the basis of a Netflix movie.

The Krausenecks' 3⅟₂-year-old daughter, Sara, was home with her mother's body for much of the day before James Krauseneck returned home and found his wife dead.

Prosecutors accused James Krauseneck of murdering Cathleen before he left in the morning for his job as an economist at Eastman Kodak Co. Sara has supported her father, who always maintained his innocence.

The case against Krauseneck was entirely circumstantial. The jury decided that he staged the murder scene to look like a robbery and that much of the evidence pointed to him, and not an intruder, as the killer.

The refusal by the Court of Appeals to decide whether an appeal on legal issues can move forward is very likely the final legal round with the criminal case. Under the system at the Court of Appeals, a single judge decides whether to grant what is known as "leave," meaning the court would, if granted, consider appellate arguments.

Judge Madeline Singas, a member of the Court of Appeals, denied the request from Krauseneck's lawyers.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Brighton ax murder case: NY court refuses posthumous appeal