Robert Leo Kosmal, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was stabbed and shot after encountering a fight in Homewood on August 16, 1935.
Kosmal was off duty and returning home with his wife and friends when they came upon the two men, Robert Carter and Joseph Thompson. Kosmal died the next day.
Thompson was convicted of first-degree murder on December 14, 1935, and sentenced to life in prison. Carter was not charged.
State Killings in the Steel City: The History of the Death Penalty in Pittsburgh 