COLUMBUS — Convicted Lima murderer Cleveland R. Jackson’s date with Ohio’s lethal injection gurney has again been delayed, this time for more than a year.
Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday cited a disciplinary complaint filed against Jackson’s former attorneys as he issued another reprieve for the man who, with half-brother Jeronique Cunningham, opened fire 17 years ago on a crowded apartment kitchen in a robbery.
Two died — Jayla Grant, 3, and Leneshia Williams, 17. He faces execution for Ms. Williams’ death but is serving life in prison without parole for Ms. Grant’s murder.
The execution, previously set for Nov. 13, has been postponed until Jan. 13, 2021. The move by the Republican governor follows a disciplinary complaint that was made public on Friday against the attorneys who previously represented Jackson, 41. The attorneys have been accused of all but abandoning him, leading to the appointment of new counsel.
A news release from Mr. DeWine’s office also cited the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s continuing difficulties in obtaining the drugs it wants to use as part of its three-drug protocol.
The governor previously had cited a federal court’s ruling in which the magistrate judge expressed his opinion that Ohio’s lethal injection protocol amounts to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. But that Dayton magistrate judge never issued an order to postpone an execution, and the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals recently overturned his decision in which he registered his opinion.
Although they’ve each tried to blame the other for firing the gun, Jackson and Cunningham were both convicted of corralling eight people into an apartment kitchen on Jan. 3, 2002, robbing them, and then opening fire at close range.
The next person scheduled to be executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville is James Galen Hanna, convicted of stabbing his cellmate, Peter Copas, in the eye and bludgeoning him with a sock containing a padlock in 1997.
Hanna was serving a life sentence in the Lebanon Correctional Institution at the time for the 1978 murder of a clerk in a West Toledo convenience store. He is scheduled for execution Dec. 11.
First Published September 30, 2019, 9:59 p.m.
