CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A former Stratham lawyer convicted of murdering his ex-wife nearly 11 years ago has lost another appeal.

Seth Bader is serving life in prison for first-degree murder and murder conspiracy in the August 1996 death of Vicki Bader. He has filed numerous appeals – all rejected – claiming that his former fiancee and teenage son conspired to kill Vicki and frame him.

Joseph Bader, who was 14 at the time of the murder, admitted helping dispose of Vicki Bader’s body and pleaded guilty in juvenile court. He led police to the burial site in Waterboro, Maine, and testified against his father at his 1998 trial.

On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled that contrary to Seth Bader’s claims, there is no evidence that prosecutors had promised Joseph leniency in exchange for his testimony. Though Bader pointed to a 1997 meeting attended by Joseph’s lawyers, his social workers and a state prosecutor as proof, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the First Circuit was unconvinced.

“What Seth’s habeas counsel recently found was evidence of a specific meeting between Joseph’s lawyers and the prosecutors. But all this shows is an occasion on which a leniency-for-testimony agreement might have been made or disclosed. And, when the three social workers were deposed, they said there was no agreement made or disclosed at the meeting,” the court wrote. “This was hardly clear and convincing evidence that the state finding had been wrong.”

Regardless of any agreement, the court wrote, Joseph obviously had an incentive to slant his testimony in favor of the prosecution because he wasn’t going be sentenced for his role until after his father’s trial. But the jury was well aware of that and the teenager was cross-examined about his motives, the court wrote.

“Faced with conflicting stories, the jury chose to believe Joseph,” the court wrote.

AP-ES-05-25-07 1808EDT

Copy the Story Link