Andrew J. Kelly

Andrew J. Kelly, an officer with the Pittsburgh Police Department, was shot and killed by Dusan Milic in East Liberty on the night of Sunday, October 4, 1903.

Milic and his companion, Mary Lugan, were firing gunshots and yelling in celebration as they returned home from a wedding. Officer Kelly, who was not in uniform, interpreted the sounds as danger and ran toward the party with his gun drawn. Believing they were being attacked, Milic fired and killed Kelly. Before doing so, Milic was shot once in the hand.

Milic was subsequently convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Arguing that he acted in self-defense and was guilty of no greater crime than voluntary manslaughter, Milic’s commutation request was successful and his sentence was changed to life imprisonment. A decade later, a subsequent pardon request was also successful and Milic was released from prison.

Author: Bill Lofquist

I am a sociologist and death penalty scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo. I am also a Pittsburgh native. My present research focuses on the history of the death penalty in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pa. This website is dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and sharing information about all Allegheny County cases in which a death sentence was imposed. Please share any questions or comments, errors or omissions, or other matters of interest related to these cases or to the broader history of the death penalty in Allegheny County. View all posts by Bill Lofquist