Convicted Murderer of Liberty High School Graduate Sues For 'Irreparable Harm' in Prison

Thirteen years after the murder of  graduate, prom queen, tennis star and honors student Shen Poehlman, her killer has filed a lawsuit claiming his confinement at a prison in Baltimore caused him "irreparable harm because of restrictive conditions and limited medical benefits," according to The Baltimore Sun. 

Poehlman of Eldersburg was 17 when John A. Miller IV lured her to his apartment in Reisterstown in 1998. 

She was brutally assaulted, smothered and strangled by Miller, who got her to travel to his apartment under the guise of a $10-per-hour babysitting job, according to a tribute page established by her parents. 

Miller sexually assaulted and strangled Poehlman with a belt just two weeks before she was to head to Florida State University on an academic and athletic scholarship, according to The Sun.  

Miller pleaded guilty in August 2007 to killing Poehlman and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2008. 

One day after the girl agreed to babysit for Miller, her body was found in her car about a mile from Miller's apartment, according to WBAL. 

Miller is arguing that the state kept him on death row for four years after Maryland's highest court vacated his death sentence in 2004, according to The Sun. 

The Court of Appeals ruled that a key witness had lied in 2000 by denying he had worked a deal with prosecutors for leniency in his own criminal case, according to The Sun. 

Miller is seeking more than $2.5 million in the lawsuit, according to court documents.