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Remove death penalty, Herring defense urges
YOUNGSTOWN
Saying Ohio’s capital- punishment law violates the U.S. Constitution and international law, public defenders want the death penalty taken off the table when a jury considers the fate of Willie Herring, who was convicted in the April 30, 1996, Newport Inn triple murder.
A new penalty-determination phase has been scheduled for November after a 4-3 Ohio Supreme Court decision vacated Herring’s death sentence last December.
The state’s top court took the action because it said Herring’s lawyers failed to thoroughly and adequately investigate Herring’s background to determine which mitigating factors to present to the jury during the penalty phase of his trial.
Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who presided over the original trial, will preside over this year’s penalty phase, in which prosecutors will seek 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.
In their written motion, the public defenders are asking Judge Durkin to eliminate the death option because they said Ohio law allows capital punishment to be imposed “in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner” in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Because it “inflicts unnecessary pain and suffering,” Ohio’s death penalty violates international law, the defense lawyers argued.
“The death penalty is neither the least restrictive, nor an effective means of deterrence. ... Society’s interests do not justify the death penalty,” the defense lawyers wrote.
The anti-capital punishment motion was one of 26 written defense motions filed Tuesday by Herring’s four Columbus-based public defenders on the eve of Wednesday’s deadline for defense motions.
Other motions call for appropriation of funds for a defense neuropsychologist, criminologist and youth violence expert.
Another motion calls for individual questioning of prospective jurors out of earshot of other potential jurors concerning their exposure to media coverage of this case and views about capital punishment.
Yet another motion asks Judge Durkin to order all spectators in the courtroom to remain silent and to refrain from head shaking or any other visible reaction to courtroom proceedings.
It asks the judge to order those who are unable to control their emotions during the proceedings to leave the courtroom.
The motion asks Judge Durkin to ban the display of signs, banners, buttons or clothing with messages related to the case anywhere in the courthouse during the penalty phase to avoid any “prejudicial impact on the jurors.”
Prosecutors have until July 2 to respond to the defense motions, with a pretrial hearing set for 1:30 p.m. July 13.
Three Newport Inn patrons were shot to death: Herman Naze, Jimmie Lee Jones and Dennis Kotheimer.
Bar owner Ron Marinelli, who was bartending that night, and Debbie Aziz, a patron, survived being shot.
Herring, then 18, and five others had met at Herring’s residence to plan the robbery.
Herring issued guns to three of them before the masked robbers stormed the Indianola Avenue bar, demanded money and began shooting.