Death-row inmate requests new trial

By Peter H. Milliken

Brown should be tried anew after witness admits perjury, public defenders say.

YOUNGSTOWN — A man convicted of the Jan. 28, 1994, murders of a convenience-store owner and clerk, who is scheduled to be executed Feb. 4, will have a hearing next month on his request for a new trial.

The hearing on Mark Aaron Brown’s request for a new trial will be at 9 a.m. Jan. 15 before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Brown, 37, was sentenced to death for killing Isam Salman, owner of the Midway Market on Elm Street, and to life in prison for killing the clerk, Hayder Al-Turk. Both victims were fatally shot in the head in the North Side store.

Brown also is set for a clemency hearing Jan. 5 in Columbus.

Brown’s motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence was made by Pamela Prude-Smithers, chief counsel for the death-penalty division of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office in Columbus, and Rachel Troutman, assistant state public defender.

“Brown’s constitutional rights were violated when false evidence was presented against him,” the public defenders said in their motion.

The defenders said a witness has admitted to them that he committed perjury when he testified at Brown’s trial and “now admits that he was across the street and two houses down when he heard the shots.” The witness said he lied because the prosecution promised him a more lenient sentence in exchange for his testimony against Brown.

Paul J. Gains, county prosecutor, and Ralph M. Rivera, an assistant county prosecutor, argued unsuccessfully against having a hearing or granting a new trial and in favor of letting Brown’s conviction and sentence stand.

The prosecutors said Brown failed to explain why he was prevented from discovering the alleged new evidence and failed to establish the jury verdict would have been different if it had considered this evidence.

“Defendant has exhausted all state and federal remedies,” and his execution is imminent, the prosecutors wrote. “This is nothing more than a last-minute attempt to prolong the inevitable,” they added.

milliken@vindy.com