Local News in Brief : Hillside Strangler Files New Appeal

Confessed Hillside Strangler Kenneth Bianchi has petitioned the federal courts to overturn his conviction for the murders of seven young women, asserting that he was coerced into confessing to the slayings and victimized by “persistent, unsanctioned leaks” about his case to the press.

In a habeas corpus petition filed this month in Los Angeles federal court, Bianchi is seeking to have a federal judge rule that the coercion rendered his guilty plea involuntary and a violation of his constitutional right to due process.

Bianchi is serving several consecutive life sentences for his part in the 1977-78 Hillside Strangler slayings in Southern California, having pleaded guilty to the murders of five young women in California and two in Washington.

In connection with his plea agreement, Bianchi agreed to testify against his adoptive cousin, Angelo Buono, who was convicted of nine sex and strangulation slayings and sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

Bianchi has exhausted his appeals in the state courts.