Wednesday, January 26, 2011
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Prosecutors have formally asked the Ohio Supreme Court to speed up its decision on a request to set an execution date for a man convicted of killing an elderly Warren couple 25 years ago.
Charles Lorraine was sentenced to death in 1986 for murdering Doris and Raymond Montgomery. Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Assistant Prosecutor LuWayne Annos asked the state’s high court last April to set an execution date in the case, noting that Lorraine had exhausted all of his state and federal appeals.
Late last week, they filed a follow-up motion to expedite, with hopes that justices will act soon on their earlier request.
“There’s no reason not to have an execution date,” Watkins said.
According to documents, 77-year-old Raymond Montgomery and his 80-year-old wife, Doris, had hired Lorraine to complete jobs around their home. “Lorraine stabbed Mr. Montgomery five times with a butcher knife and stabbed Mrs. Montgomery, who was bedridden, nine times,” according to documents. “Lorraine stole their money, and when he spent all of the money that day, he returned to the Montgomerys’ house to steal again.”
The state parole board recommended against clemency in the case in 1994, but Lorraine filed additional legal action, alleging that he was mentally retarded and could not be executed.
Subsequent proceedings on that issue tied up the case for years, until a hearing early last year, when Lorraine abandoned the effort. At that time, he told reporters “I’ll say and do whatever I need to do to stay alive,” and went on to clarify, “I’m not mentally retarded,” according to documents.
Watkins said Lorraine is one of the longest- serving inmates on death row who delayed his execution too long with a “frivolous claim.”
“We just want to get this done for the victim’s family and society in general,” he said, adding, “The facts are what they are, and we’re entitled to have the judgment of the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court carried out.”