Judge rules on motions in Herring case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge John Durkin ruled on several routine motions Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in advance of a resentencing hearing for a man convicted of the 1996 deaths of three people during a robbery.

The motions, such as a request for Willie Herring, 36, to be allowed to wear civilian clothes and to have no visible restraints during his sentencing hearing in November, were among several filed by Herring’s defense team.

Jury selection is to begin Nov. 5 for Herring’s sentencing hearing.

Herring had been convicted of three counts of complicity to commit aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery, all with firearm specifications, for the April 30, 1996, robbery and shooting at the Newport Inn, 179 W. Indianola Ave.

A jury recommended he be sentenced to death, and Judge Durkin agreed. But in December, the state Supreme Court vacated his death sentence, saying that improper mitigation was presented by Herring’s defense lawyers to jurors during the mitigation phase of the trial.

The high-court decision affirmed a similar decision by the 7th District Court of Appeals.

The high court ruled that a new sentencing hearing must take place to determine if Herring should receive the death penalty.

After hearing testimony, jurors will choose between death, 30 years to life in prison and 20 years to life in prison, unless the death penalty is removed from the table.