There’s a Death Row waiting list in Mahoning, Trumbull counties

It took 14 years from the time of the crime until Jason Getsy, 33, was executed in August for the 1995 murder of Ann Serafino of Hubbard.

It took 18 years for the state to execute Kenneth Biros, 51, Tuesday for killing Tami Engstrom of Hubbard in 1991.

The next man from the Mahoning Valley likely to face the executioner is Mark Aaron Brown, 37, who killed Isam Salman and Hayder Al-Turk at the Midway Market in Youngstown in 1994 — 16 years ago.

Brown has an execution date of Feb. 4, 2010, and a clemency hearing Jan. 5, 2010, said Ralph Rivera, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.

Paul Gains, Mahoning County prosecutor, said he’ll “have no problem” going to Columbus to argue against clemency for Brown or any of the seven other Mahoning County Death Row inmates, even though he was a defense attorney for hundreds of defendants, including murderers, for 15 years.

“Ohio has a lot of safeguards in place that some states do not have, and as long as it’s the law, I will enforce it,” Gains said of the death penalty.

Read more in Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com