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Judge in Seman case hears arguments on death penalty
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Maureen Sweeney is expected to soon rule on motions asking her to dismiss death-penalty specifications against Robert Seman.
Seman, 48, of Green, faces 10 counts of aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications for the arson deaths of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, when the Schmidts’ Powers Way home was destroyed by fire March 31, 2015, the day Seman was to go on trial on charges he raped Corinne.
Attorneys argued their motions Wednesday before the judge in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Lynn Maro, one of two lawyers representing Seman, said one of the reasons the specifications should be overturned is because the lack of execution drugs in Ohio violates Seman’s Eighth Amendment constitutional right to not receive cruel and unusual punishment.
Maro said because the state cannot find the drugs, it is canceling and rescheduling executions, which causes uncertainty for inmates as to when they may be executed because they do not know when that date will be.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said the two cases Maro was citing are 125 and 60 years old, respectively. Cantalamessa said no ruling states death-penalty specification should be withdrawn because of a problem with the way the execution is to be carried out.
“There’s no case law that says the death penalty should be dismissed because of that,” Cantalamessa said.
Maro also said the specifications should be dismissed because of a prosecution request to disqualify all jurors from the jury pool who are opposed to the death penalty.
Maro said Supreme Court rulings have found that jurors who favor the death penalty are more inclined to convict, which is unfair to her client.
Maro also challenged the specifications on how they were worded as well with the terms “prior calculation and design” and “principal offender” language in the same specification, which she said is a violation of state law.
Cantalamessa said the state would stand on their briefs for the most part to rebut the arguments.
Judge Sweeney in April had turned down a request by Seman’s lawyers to dismiss the death penalty altogether because it violates the Ohio constitution.