Thursday, November 24, 2005
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The Ohio Supreme Court struck down a death sentence on Wednesday for a man convicted of killing a 3-year-old girl -- but the ruling doesn't remove him from death row.
Cleveland Jackson Jr. was sentenced to death for shooting both 3-year-old Jala Grant and 17-year-old Leneshia Williams in the head in a January 2002 robbery in a Lima apartment.
Six other victims were wounded after being herded into the kitchen. The shootings stopped when the two robbers ran out of bullets, the ruling said. Jackson's half brother, Jeronique Cunningham, also was sentenced to death.
The justices let stand the death penalty for killing Williams, saying the multiple shootings outweighed any evidence in support of his character.
Jackson's attorneys should have been able to tell prospective jurors Jala's age during questioning to find out if that would make them more likely to impose the death penalty, said the 6-1 ruling by Chief Justice Thomas Moyer. The case was returned to Allen County Common Pleas Court for a new sentence on her death only.
Some jurors wrote in their questionnaires that they don't think penalties are strong enough for people who hurt children.
"The trial court here was on notice that some prospective jurors harbored a strong bias in favor of imposing death for murderers of children," Moyer wrote. "If an issue of bias surfaces before trial, it is the trial court's responsibility to conduct an adequate inquiry."
Justice Alice Robie Resnick disagreed only with the part of the ruling overturning the death sentence for Jala, saying she believed the questioning was thorough enough to seat a fair jury.