Scott Dyleski is a young man unjustly imprisioned in California for the murder of Pamela Vitale. Pamela Vitale was brutally murderd in her home in Lafayette, California on October 15, 2005. Scott was 16 at the time and lived in a planned community about a mile away in the same Hunsaker Canyon area of Lafayette. Scott was sentenced to Life Without Parole in September of 2006. He was transferred to San Quentin Prison on his 18th birthday, becoming the youngest inmate in the California prison system at that time. He has been moved now to Kern Valley State Prison. Scott was convicted based on very flimsy evidence and lack of an adequate defense. He was assigned a relatively inexperienced Public Defender with limited resources who had to go up against an agressive, experienced prosecutor with virtually unlimited resources in a case that received prejudicial coverage. At the least, both Scott Dyleski and Pamela Vitale deserve the justice of an intense investigation and a fair trial.

About Scott's trial, from Teen Advocates USA ...

Watch the public defender's closing argument which raises troubing questions about the reliability of the state's evidence including DNA samples so insufficient they could not be submitted to the FBI's CODIS program for comparison, forensic evidence collected from the crime scene and elsewhere that was never tested and a time of death that relied upon the opinion of a computer forensics expert instead of medical science. PART ONE   PART TWO

Inadequate Defense + Lack of Money = Injustice

If you are poor and even if you can afford to pay your own lawyer, there is no way there is enough money to hire the private investigators, pay for independent forensic evidence testing, and hire experts to testify. The system is inequitable as the Prosecution has far more resources at their disposal. Particularly troubling is that a Public Defender typically also does not have as many resources as the Prosecution so there is no option except to raise funds for an adequate defense. It is unfortunate that Scott did not get an adequate defense from the beginning with an equal playing field. We have hopes, that an appeal will be granted and this time around the neccessary resources and expertise wil be employed. Scott was assigned an appellate attorney, Philip Brooks, who is working very hard on Scott's case.

UPDATE: Appellant application was granted to file an oversized brief and Appellate Opening Brief was filed  -  January 16, 2008. Respondent's brief is to be filed within 30 days (four extensions of time have been granted for the response - granted with the current one on June 16, 2008).

Appellate Court Information for People vs. Scott Edgar Dyleski (here)
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