Cases are backed up, prosecutor complains

The prosecutor said a case can be waiting for years.

DAYTON (AP) — Some in the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office are citing an administrative order transferring five cases from U.S. District Judge Walter Rice to another judge as evidence that the judge is purposely delaying justice.

Prosecutor Joe Deters said once a case goes to Judge Rice’s office it’s not uncommon to stay there for eight years. Such a delay of justice is excessive and inexcusable, Deters’ spokeswoman Megan Shanahan said.

Judge Rice said the accusation is unfair and denied ever sitting on a case for eight years. In fact, the process can take years before it even comes to him, he said.

Chief Magistrate Judge Michael Merz, who serves as the court’s coordinator for death-penalty appeals for Cincinnati and Dayton, said the appeals process is so long that it can take years before he is ready to give a set of recommendations to the judge who is assigned to the case.

Once the cases are filed in federal court, new lawyers are appointed who generally need time to familiarize themselves with hundreds of pages of records, he said. Then there are new hearings, new discovery requests and new filings that can have dozens of individual arguments.

Judge Rice claims that in reality, the five cases that were reassigned were with him for three years or less, including one that was in his hands for five months. “I’m proud of none of this,” Judge Rice said about the delays.

Of the five cases reassigned, only one is from the Dayton area: that of James Taylor, who was sentenced to death in 1999 for shooting Ronald and Carolyn Rihm at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge in Fairborn.

The notice of intention to file a habeas corpus petition, the first step in the appeals process, was filed in August 2003. Judge Merz sent it to Judge Rice for review in October 2006.

Other prosecuotors say they are not concerned with the delays because death-penalty appeals are usually lengthy.

“Judge Rice has a reputation for being very deliberate,” said Greene County Prosecutor Stephen Haller.