Indiana man wants new trial in killing of teens where pagan ritual evidence can be introduced
Richard Allen, serving a 130-year prison sentence for the 2017 murder of two teenage girls in Indiana, has appealed to the state's appeals court to have his convictions overturned. He claims that his confession was obtained while he was experiencing a psychological crisis, and that he was prevented from presenting evidence at trial that the girls were killed by unknown participants in a pagan ritual.
Allen was convicted in 2024 for the deaths of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, in the small town of Delphi. The case remained unsolved for over five years before Allen was arrested. Jurors had enough evidence to find him guilty, even without his confessions, but prosecutors argued that allowing a defense expert to testify about the possibility of a pagan ritual would have made the trial a sideshow.
The girls' bodies were found on a hiking trail near an abandoned railroad trestle, and Allen's trial attorneys argued that his mental state deteriorated during his time in solitary confinement, leading to false confessions. Allen's lawyers are expected to argue before the appeals court about inconsistencies in witness descriptions of a suspicious man near the trail, and why a defense expert was barred from questioning whether marks on an unfired bullet can be traced to Allen's gun.
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