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Thread: Rayshawn Johnson - Ohio

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Delay in likely death sentence

    Wednesday’s scheduled death sentence hearing for twice-convicted murderer Rayshaw Johnson was delayed.

    Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Ralph “Ted” Winkler wanted to ensure there are no issues with the case that could cause the sentence to be overturned. He noted at Wednesday’s hearing, after a jury recommended Dec. 7 that Johnson be sentenced to death, he had not yet read all 2,151 pages of transcripts from the original 1998 case.

    "I apologize to the attorneys but I find it necessary to be very careful," Winkler said.

    That’s because this was the second trial Johnson had on the charges. The first trial, in 1998, ended with the jury convicting Johnson of aggravated murder for the Nov. 12, 1997, beating death of Shanon Marks in her East Walnut Hills home. Johnson confessed to using a baseball bat to kill her during a robbery that netted him $50.

    Johnson was sentenced to death in 1998 but 10 years later an appeals court ruled that Johnson’s 1998 lawyers did such a poor job of trying to save him from the death penalty during the sentencing phase of the trial that he should get a second trial -- but only on the sentence.

    His murder conviction stood. After several days of testimony -- including from Johnson, his grandmother, mother and 14-year-old son who was one-month-old at the time of the mother, begging for jurors to spare Johnson’s life -- jurors again recommended a death sentence earlier this month.

    That sentence has to be approved by the judge and that’s why both sides were in court Tuesday.

    Winkler, though, said he needed more time to read the 11-volume transcripts from the 1998 trial before passing a sentence.

    “I'm a pretty good reader but I have been unable to read 2,100 pages since Dec. 7," the judge said.

    Johnson now will be sentenced Jan. 10. Johnson’s appeals, which have kept him alive for 14 years, will start anew after Winkler’s sentence.

    http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...xt%7CFRONTPAGE

  2. #12
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Judge to sentence Rayshawn Johnson

    A Hamilton County judge is expected to sentence a man convicted of a murder in 1997.

    A jury recommended the death penalty for Rayshawn Johnson. He was convicted of beating Shanon Marks to death with a baseball bat.

    Johnson has spent the last 14 years on death row after originally being sentenced to death for the crime. He was granted a new sentencing phase after an appeals court said his attorneys didn't fully investigate his abusive past.

    Judge Ralph Winkler can either go with the jury's recommendation and sentence Johnson to the death penalty again, or he can give him life in prison.

    Johnson was originally scheduled to be sentenced last month, but Judge Winkler said he needed more time to read the transcript from the first trial.

    If Judge Winkler does order the death penalty, he will also set the execution date at the same time. However, that date will likely be delayed due to the lengthy appeals process.

    http://www.fox19.com/story/16483550/...-johnson-today

  3. #13
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    Rayshawn Johnson sentenced to death

    As the judge read Rayshawn Johnson’s death sentence Tuesday, Mark Piepmeier stared at the murderer.

    Piepmeier, the chief deputy Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor, convicted Johnson and won a death sentence against him in 1998. He had to seek the death penalty a second time after a 2008 appeals court ruled Johnson was guilty but deserved a new sentencing phase.

    Piepmeier was determined to see how Johnson would react this time after he saw no emotion following the first death sentence more than a decade ago.

    “He’s never reacted in the past. Maybe at some point the enormity of what he did will sink in. He just doesn’t care,” Piepmeier said moments after Common Pleas Court Judge Ralph “Ted” Winkler followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Johnson to death.

    “He was not even flinching That’s what cold-hearted killers do.”

    Johnson bludgeoned Shanon Marks to death in the bathroom of her East Walnut Hills home in a Nov. 12, 1997, incident. Johnson, who lived in a house behind the Marks house, said he went there to try to rob her but she put up a fight and he beat her to death with a baseball bat. Then he took $50 from her and left her on the floor for her husband to find more than eight hours later.

    After confessing, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in the first trial in 1998. But an appeals court ruled that Johnson’s 1998 attorneys failed in the punishment phase by doing nothing to try to save Johnson from death and ordered, in a rare move, that he be given a new trial but only on the punishment phase.

    Johnson’s guilt or innocence was never at question in the second trial, only if he would get a second death sentence or life in prison.

    “He knew the reality of what was going to happen,” Johnson’s attorney Will Welsh said after the death sentence was announced.

    “We’re not aware of any judge in Hamilton County ever overturning a (jury-recommended) death penalty and we made him aware of that. It starts over.”

    Welsh was referring to Johnson’s appeal process that could last another decade or longer.

    But Prosecutor Joe Deters believed Johnson’s appeals process will be much shorter because it cannot take into consideration this time his guilt or innocence.

    “I’m really optimistic it will move a lot faster,” Deters said.

    Calling the murder “an obscene act,” Deters said “Hopefully, he’ll be executed for it.”

    Johnson, now 33, was 19 at the time of the murder.

    Winkler set an April 10 execution date but that is an artificial date because all death sentences are automatically appealed.

    http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...xt%7CFRONTPAGE

  4. #14
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Rayshawn Johnson sentenced to death
    Winkler set an April 10 execution date but that is an artificial date because all death sentences are automatically appealed.
    This is purely protocol!!

  5. #15
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    2012-0405. State v. Johnson.

    Hamilton C.P. No. B9708745 This cause is pending before the court as a death penalty appeal from the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton County.

    Upon consideration of appellant's motion for stay of execution scheduled for April 10, 2012, it is so ordered by the court that the motion is granted pending final disposition of this appeal
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  6. #16
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    Already in prison, mom faces murder charge

    Written by Kimball Perry

    Halloran Carr, already in prison for child endangering, may have to serve a lot more time because she was indicted for murder Wednesday after the child died.

    But at least she won’t join her brother on Ohio’s death row.

    Carr is serving an eight-year prison sentence imposed on her in 2009 for child endangering. She was convicted of shaking her 3-year-old daughter, Destiny Concepcion, in a 2007 incident. Carr shook her child so violently that her skull was fractured. That child had cerebral palsy, was blind, couldn’t eat solid food, move her neck or sit up and was projected never to walk or talk.

    Destiny died last year, Hamilton County Prosecutor spokeswoman Julie Wilson said Wednesday, but it took time to gather evidence to present to a grand jury to upgrade Carr’s charge. That happened Wednesday when a grand jury indicted Carr for murder, a crime carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. Destiny was the second of Carr's children to die.

    Even with the new indictment, Carr will receive a lighter sentence than her killer brother.

    Her brother, Rayshawn Johnson, was sentenced to death – twice – for the Nov. 12, 1997, baseball bat beating murder of Shanon Marks, 29, in her East Walnut Hills home. His first death sentence was set aside after an appeal. After a second trial, he again was sentenced to death in 2011 for Marks’ murder.

    Their brother, Ronald Johnson, is serving a 20-year sentence for his 1999 conviction for attempted murder, felonious assault and burglary after slitting a woman's throat during a May 1998 incident in Norwood.

    http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...nclick_check=1

  7. #17
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Killer mom joins killer brother behind bars

    Halloran Carr joined her notorious brother Wednesday as a convicted killer when she admitted she killed her daughter after a 2007 shaking incident.

    Her case is unusual because she was convicted in 2009 for felonious assault in the same incident and was five years into an eight-year prison sentence when the child died, the coroner ruled, as a result of the years-old shaking incident.

    Carr, 30, was indicted in January for murder for the death of Destiny Concepcion, her then 3-year-old daughter. Carr pleaded guilty Wednesday, though to the reduced charge of manslaughter.

    Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Ralph Winkler immediately sentenced Carr to 11 years in prison, the maximum, for a manslaughter conviction, but gave her credit for the time she already served behind bars for the assault conviction. The original murder charge could have resulted in a sentence of life in prison.

    The result is Carr had three more years added to her prison sentence in the original assault conviction.

    The child lived a horrible existence in the five years after her shaking., She was blinded, suffered a skull fracture and lost the ability to sit up, walk or eat solid food. Destiny was the second of Carr’s children to die.

    Carr is the sister of Rayshawn Johnson, convicted of murder and twice sentenced to death in the same 1997 baseball-bat beating death case.

    Johnson beat Shanon Marks, 29, to death in her East Walnut Hills home. His first death sentence was thrown out but he again was sentenced to death in his second trial.

    Another of Carr’s brothers, Ronald Johnson, is serving a 20-year sentence on his 1999 conviction for attempted murder, felonious assault and burglary after slitting a woman's throat during a 1998 Norwood incident.

    http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news...-bars/9121707/
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  8. #18
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    View oral arguments here beginning at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday June 10, 2015

    Death Penalty: Review of New Penalty Phase of Trial

    Rayshawn Johnson v. State of Ohio, Case no. 2012-0405

    Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas

    Rayshawn Johnson of Cincinnati was sentenced to death a second time in the redo of the penalty phase of his 1998 murder trial. Johnson has appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court asking that his death sentence be set aside and a third sentencing-phase hearing be ordered in his case.

    Case History

    Johnson was convicted of murdering Shanon Marks in her Cincinnati home in November 1997. He was also found guilty of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, robbery, and kidnapping, and the court imposed the death penalty. The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and death sentence in March 2000.

    In a federal appeal, however, the district court ruled in 2006 that Johnson’s attorneys were ineffective during the penalty phase of his trial and directed the State of Ohio to give Johnson a new mitigation hearing. In December 2011, the jury in the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court recommended that Johnson receive the death penalty for the murder, and the court later sentenced him to death. Johnson filed an appeal directly with the Ohio Supreme Court.

    Johnson’s Claims

    Attorneys for Johnson present seven main arguments in the brief to the court. Among the assertions:

    They contend that two potential jurors who were African-American were excluded from the jury by the prosecution based on their race. While the state claims the potential jurors were removed because they expressed uncertainty about the death penalty, the lawyers for Johnson, who is African-American, argue these two jurors had the same views about the death penalty as a Caucasian woman who was selected for the jury.

    They maintain that the prosecutor’s reason for removing these jurors was a pretext to hide a racially-motivated reason and violated Johnson’s equal-protection rights. In addition, they assert that the trial court didn’t properly investigate the prosecution’s exclusion of these jurors.

    They then challenge the effectiveness of Johnson’s attorneys for not explaining to the court during jury selection why they thought the removal of the two jurors was improperly based on race. By failing to review the jury questionnaires, defense counsel acted incompetently, his appellate attorneys contend.

    Johnson’s attorneys also take issue with the admission of certain evidence – photographs of Marks’ dead body at the crime scene, the 9-1-1 call from Marks’ husband, and interviews Johnson did with the media on the day of the murder – from the original trial into the new penalty-phase proceeding. They note that the guilt phase was over and that the jury was tasked only with weighing the aggravating circumstances against the mitigating factors to decide the appropriate sentence. They argue this evidence had nothing to do with the aggravating circumstances in the case, was meant to play to the jury’s emotions, and affected the jury’s decision.

    They further assert that the prosecutor committed misconduct by permitting a detective to provide different testimony than he had 14 years earlier in the original trial and by disparaging the credibility of Johnson’s grandmother on the stand. These actions were “purposeful, misleading, prejudicial, and damaging,” and denied Johnson a fair trial and due process, they maintain.

    State’s Assertions

    Attorneys from the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office make several counter-arguments:

    They assert that Johnson’s defense never mentioned the selection of the Caucasian woman as a juror as proof of the prosecution’s discriminatory intent in removing two African-American jurors during voir dire. By not raising the issue during trial, the argument is waived and can’t be made now, they maintain.

    They also counter that the Caucasian juror’s view more clearly supported the death penalty because she said she could impose a death sentence if the defendant was guilty without “a shadow of a doubt” and Johnson’s guilt had already been established and wasn’t part of the new penalty proceeding. The removed jurors expressed more uncertainty about imposing death, and the state had the right to exclude them from the penalty-phase trial, the prosecutors stress.

    They contend in the brief to the court that evidence from the trial was presented because the jury had to consider the nature and circumstances of the aggravating factors and of the offenses, which includes the “facts of the crime, the planning and cover-up, and the immediate results.” The issue contesting the presentation of the photographs was already rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2000, they maintain. They argue the 9-1-1 call reflects the nature and circumstances of Johnson’s offense. And, if playing the call is viewed as an error, it was harmless to the outcome of the case, they assert. As for the media interviews, the prosecution presented case law at trial showing that such coverage can be admitted for the jury to consider as a mitigating factor.

    They also argue that the detective’s comments didn’t contradict his testimony from 14 years earlier by simply adding details he had left out then. They also state that the prosecution had the right to question the grandmother’s second-round testimony, which transformed her into a cruel, more violent family member who took care of Johnson during parts of his childhood. The prosecution’s disputed comment that the grandmother would now “say anything” to prevent a death sentence was an isolated comment made in the midst of a lengthy cross-examination that supported the comment and didn’t mislead the jury, they maintain.

    - Kathleen Maloney

    Docket entries, memoranda, briefs (including amicus briefs), and other information about this case may be accessed through the case docket.

    Contacts

    Representing Rayshawn Johnson from the Ohio Public Defender’s Office: Tyson Fleming, 614.644.9651

    Representing the State of Ohio from the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office: Ronald Springman Jr., 513.946.3052
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  9. #19
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    State of Ohio v. Rayshawn Johnson

    In today's Ohio Supreme Court opinions, the court VACATED Johnson's death sentence and remanded the case to the trial court for resentencing. Citing aggravating factors in the case DID NOT outweigh mitigating factors.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  10. #20
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    Cincinnati killer gets life in prison instead of death penalty

    COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An East Walnut Hills man will spend the rest of his life in prison after the Ohio Supreme Court overturned his death sentence earlier this month.

    A judge sentenced Rayshawn Johnson to life in prison without the possibility of parole Monday for the crime of killing his neighbor in 1997.

    In a 4-3 decision on Dec. 1 , the state's high court ruled the aggravating circumstances in Johnson's case were not outweighed beyond a reasonable doubt by other factors.

    Johnson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1998 for the brutal beating death of his neighbor, Shanon Marks, inside her home. A second jury upheld the death penalty sentence after a week-long trial in 2012.

    The court cited mitigating factors such as Johnson’s childhood that when taken together made a death sentence inappropriate.

    Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, Justices Paul Pfeifer, Judith Lanzinger and William O’Neill voted to overturn the sentence and Justices Terrence O’Donnell, Sharon Kennedy and Judith French dissented.

    The justices mainly cited mitigating factors including Johnson’s childhood, addiction and developmental issues.

    In their opinion, the justices wrote that Johnson’s attorneys failed to adequately investigate his background and present that to the jury.

    They also cited a previous circuit ruling that found the jury was misled about the quality of Johnson’s upbringing.

    Johnson’s grandmother later testified about her addiction and her daughter’s addiction issues and how that impacted Johnson’s life.

    In one instance, she recounted a time when the family had to live in a shack with “no electricity or water, and they did not always have food or diapers.”

    She also spoke about how sometimes the family put drugs in Johnson’s bottle or applesauce, and occasionally gave him beer as a child.

    The justices also cited Johnson’s low recorded IQ (83) and his poor performance at school. According to the opinion, Johnson was identified as developmentally handicapped. He was also diagnosed with dependencies on alcohol and marijuana, as well as dysthymia – a form of depression found in people with dysfunctional family backgrounds.

    http://www.wcpo.com/news/crime/raysh...-death-penalty
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