67-year-old Delores White is asking for pandemic relief while she awaits trial.

White is accused in the April stabbing death of her daughter's boyfriend, to defend her daughter from her abusive boyfriend. She is arguing self-defense, and her lawyer continues to dispute that the District Attorney's Office has enough evidence to prove first-degree murder.

White's lawyer, Eric Hackwelder, had asked Erie County (PA) judge Marshall Piccinini to furlough White and place her under house arrest due to the pandemic and White's health issues, including asthma, diabetes and heart problems, which Hackwelder said put White more at risk if she were to contract covid-19. 

"White cites no legal authority authorizing the Court to grant such a request under Pennsylvania law, and the Court is aware of none," Erie County Judge Marshall Piccinini wrote in a one-paragraph order on Dec. 23. Hackwelder wrote that he "has no doubt that this Court is aware that COVID-19 has breached the Erie County Prison walls."

The defense and White's daughter have argued that White deserves bond partly due to the treatment of other homicide defendants in recent Erie County cases. White's daughter, Jamesha White, has said she believes race has played a part in the treatment of her mother, who is Black. 

Another defendant accused of homicide in 2020 has been released on bond in a case in which he is arguing self-defense, though the District Attorney's Office is not seeking a first-degree murder conviction in that case.
The defendant in that case is white. He is Corey R. Kendig, 30, accused of a fatal shooting outside a Harborcreek Township strip club in October. District Attorney Jack Daneri has said the evidence in the Kendig and White cases differs.
Kendig is free after posting $100,000 bail (White has twice been denied bond by Judge Piccinini.) His trial is scheduled for August.