Man serving 130-year sentence seeks new trial, argues barred pagan-ritual defense

Richard Allen, sentenced to 130 years for the 2017 killings of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German in Delphi, Indiana, is seeking a new trial before the Indiana Court of Appeals. His brief argues that his multiple confessions were given while he was undergoing a psychological breakdown, exacerbated by months of solitary confinement, and therefore unreliable. The defense also claims the trial wrongly excluded an expert who could have argued that the positioning of the bodies, the presence of branches, and other details indicated a pagan sacrifice associated with Odin worship.

Prosecutors counter that Allen’s statements, made before and after signs of mental illness, align with physical evidence, including an unspent bullet linked to his handgun and his presence near the trail. They assert that even without the confessions, the circumstantial evidence would have led a jury to convict. The appeal will also address inconsistencies in eyewitness descriptions of a suspicious man and the denial of testimony about forensic analysis of the bullet. The case, which attracted intense media attention after remaining unsolved for over five years, could set precedent on the use of ritual-theory experts in murder trials.