Supreme Court won’t hear Roberts’ appeal

Staff report

WASHINGTON

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to hear an appeal by Donna Roberts, who was convicted along with a boyfriend of killing her ex-husband, Robert Fingerhut, in 2001 in the Howland home she and Fingerhut shared.

Roberts, 63, is the only woman on death row in Ohio.

Her death sentence was overturned by the Ohio Supreme Court in October, saying Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull Common Pleas Court judge failed to consider certain new evidence before resentencing her.

Ohio’s top court ordered Judge Ronald Rice, who became judge after Stuard retired, to carry out a resentencing and consider additional evidence.

Roberts’ request to the U.S. Supreme Court was to overturn a 2007 decision by Judge Stuard in which he refused to recuse himself from the case and refused to consider mitigating evidence related to Roberts possibly having suffered head trauma during traffic accidents and having diagnosed mental disabilities.