OFFICER'S SLAYING Koliser: Speed up my death

Martin Koliser's lawyers say he should be allowed to waive all appeals.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Martin L. Koliser Jr. says he would rather die than languish in prison, and he's asking the Ohio Supreme Court to hasten his execution.
Koliser, on Ohio's death row for killing Youngstown Patrolman Michael T. Hartzell in April 2003, is asking to waive an appeal to the high court of his conviction and death sentence.
At his November 2003 sentencing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Koliser said he would go along with a Supreme Court appeal because it's mandatory under Ohio law, but that he does not want any further appeals if he is unsuccessful.
Motion's assertion
In a 40-page motion filed with the supreme court this week, attorneys John B. Juhasz and Mary Jane Stephens said an appeal to the high court isn't mandatory at all. They said the appeal is built into the law as a safeguard to prevent criminal defendants from wrongly suffering cruel or unusual punishment, but is optional.
They said that as long as a defendant is proven mentally competent, he or she should be allowed to waive that safeguard and skip the appeal if so desired. Koliser agreed to a direct appeal to the Supreme Court only because he believed one is required, Juhasz said.
He said the Supreme Court is required to review a death sentence only when the capital defendant chooses to appeal.
"The record in this case is replete with indicia that [Koliser] is competent" [to waive the appeal] Juhasz wrote in court documents.
He said the Supreme Court has held in the past that a criminal defendant may abandon any and all challenges to the death sentence at any stage after the sentence is imposed.
All that's required is a demonstration that the defendant understands the choice between life and death and then makes a "knowing, voluntary and intelligent decision not to pursue further remedies."
Another ruling
But Juhasz said the high court also ruled in another case that a capital defendant must have a direct appeal of his death sentence.
He said the court should use Koliser's case as a chance to clear up the conflicting opinions and affirm a capital defendant's right to waive appeals.
"This court specifically has said that any challenge to a capital conviction, including appeals, may be waived," Juhasz wrote in the motion.
"Nothing in the Constitution demands that a citizen must suffer through a protection, admittedly erected for his benefit, should he choose not to avail himself of it," Juhasz wrote.
He said Koliser has demonstrated all along that he would rather be executed than serve an extended term in prison while his appeals are processed.
Koliser would not allow his lawyers to present a defense on his behalf at trial and would not allow them to present mitigating evidence to dissuade jurors and Judge R. Scott Krichbaum from imposing the death penalty.
Assistant Prosecutor Jay Macejko said he's unaware of any previous requests to waive a direct death-sentence appeal to the Supreme Court, but Juhasz said there have been at least two.
Who they were
One of them was filed by Stephen Vrabel, a Struthers man who was executed last month for killing his girlfriend and daughter. The other was by a man from Richland County. The high court dismissed both requests.
Macejko said the prosecutor's office agrees that Koliser should be allowed to waive his appeals, and that prosecutors will file a response to the brief filed by Juhasz and Stephens.
bjackson@vindy.com