WARREN County: Appeal sentence reversal
Lorraine was convicted in November 1986 of murder.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office is urging the state attorney general to appeal a federal judge's decision to reverse the death sentence of a man convicted of double murder.
Judge David D. Dowd Jr. of U.S. District Court in Akron ordered March 31 that Charles Lorraine be resentenced in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in 120 days or be released.
Lorraine is on death row.
LuWayne Annos, an assistant prosecutor, said the office wants that order to be appealed "beyond any shadow of any doubt."
State's view: Brett Crow, a spokesman with the attorney general's office, said Thursday that "most likely" the case will be appealed. He noted that the office has until the end of the month.
The appeal would be filed with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"We want to make sure that Charles Lorraine remains on death row for the heinous crime he committed against two senior citizens," Annos said.
In his 95-page ruling, Judge Dowd wrote that he reversed the sentence because "the death sentence very likely resulted from the cumulative effect of defense counsel's ineffectiveness and the prosecution's misconduct" during the trial's mitigation phase.
It is during the mitigation phase that jurors are asked to determine if the defendant should receive the death penalty.
Lorraine was convicted in November 1986 of the murders of Raymond Montgomery, 77, and his wife, Doris, 80, in their home on Haymaker Avenue N.W. The same jury determined later that he should be sentenced to death.
Judge Dowd said in his ruling that Michael Gleospen and Scott Kenney of the Ohio Public Defenders Commission were ineffective in the mitigation and sentencing phases of the trial.
The judge also stated that the prosecutor failed to reveal the identity of one of its rebuttal witnesses, a psychiatrist.