Ernest Simmons, who had been sentenced to death for a 1992 murder but was granted a new trial after revelations of prosecutorial misconduct, was re-sentenced today to five to 10 years in state prison after he pleaded no-contest to third-degree murder.

Cambria County Judge Timothy Creany sentenced Mr. Simmons to five to 10 years in state prison and also to a 10-year probationary term and assessed him a $5,000 fine.

Mr. Simmons, now 52, has already spent more than 15 years in prison for the murder of 80-year-old Anna Knaze, who was found bludgeoned to death in her Johnstown home. He once came within four days of his scheduled execution. Since he has already served more time than his new sentence, he is to be released, but it was not clear today exactly when that would take place.

He was awarded a new trial in 2005, after U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin ruled that police and prosecutors had withheld evidence that could have discredited their "most pivotal witness," in Judge McLaughlin's words.

Police and prosecutors also hid DNA evidence and tapes of secretly recorded phone conversations during which Mr. Simmons repeatedly declared his innocence to his girlfriend, according to the 2005 ruling.

During a lengthy investigation into Mr. Simmons's case, student reporters at the Innocence Institute of Point Park University uncovered a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct, and during a 2003 interview, the prosecution's key witness recanted her eyewitness identification. The Innocence Institute is directed by Bill Moushey, a former Post-Gazette reporter.

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