HARRISBURG - The state Superior Court has ordered a county judge to look for the least expensive way to accommodate a convicted murderer who wants to get married but can't afford the cost of being transported to the courthouse to apply for a license.

Alfie K. Coats, 36, now serving a life sentence in the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy, appealed after a Schuylkill County judge ruled that clerks in the county Orphans' Court, which issues the licenses, did not have to come to the county's four prisons to do so.

State law requires marriage-license applicants to appear in person to vouch for the legality of the marriage, but Coats and fiancee Sandra Lee Jackson argued that they could not afford to pay deputies to drive him from the prison outside Frackville to the Pottsville courthouse.

The Superior Court panel on Monday voted 2-1 to order a new hearing within 60 days "to determine the least costly method to achieve the necessary face-to-face interview" among such alternatives as video conferencing, deputizing prison staff to do the license interview, or sending a marriage clerk into the prison.

Although Coats said he could not afford to pay deputies to transport him, it is unclear who would be willing to do so even for a fee. Schuylkill County Sheriff Francis McAndrew said his office maintains a standing policy against bringing prisoners to the courthouse for marriage licenses.

A Department of Corrections policy dated March 2001 states that it will not provide transportation but offers as alternatives video conferencing or having a clerk come to the prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 established that prisoners have the right to marry, but the two judges in the Superior Court majority opinion said they were reluctant to impose their own solution.

By The Associated Press