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Thread: Lawrence Alfred Landrum - Ohio Execution - October 15, 2024

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    Lawrence Alfred Landrum - Ohio Execution - October 15, 2024




    Summary of Offense:

    On September 19, 1985, Landrum murdered 84-year-old Harold White at his home near Chillicothe. Mr. White had previously shown Landrum his apartment, believing that Landrum wanted to rent it. Mr. White arrived home and caught Landrum and his juvenile accomplice, Grant Swackhammer, stealing money and nerve pills from his apartment. Landrum ordered Swackhammer to hit Mr. White on the head with a large railroad bolt, then Landrum attacked Mr. White and slit his throat with a kitchen knife. Landrum later bragged to several of his friends about the murder, offered to show them Mr. White's body, and threatened to slit their throats if they told police.

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    Ross County death row inmate loses latest appeal

    CHILLICOTHE -- A Ross County death row inmate whose latest appeal found a glimmer of hope almost four years ago saw that hope dimmed Thursday.

    The Sixth District U.S. Court of Appeals filed its decision Thursday to deny Lawrence Landrum's claims for relief from his conviction and death sentence. Landrum was convicted in the Sept. 19, 1985, murder of 84-year-old Harold White Sr. in White's apartment, and the decision Thursday moves him a step closer to an appearance in Ohio's death chamber in Lucasville.

    Landrum, 49, who lost his initial appeal in 1989 after claiming there were 29 errors in his trial that led to his conviction, was asking the Sixth District appellate court to uphold a state court's ruling to grant him a new trial based on eight claims tied to errors in the original trial court, other courts in the appeals process and ineffective representation of his own defense counsel. Prosecutors took the case to the appellate court after the state court's ruling.

    His claims included:

    # His trial attorney's performance was deficient in the trial phase, which created a prejudice against Landrum.

    # The trial court made an error when it did not give Grant Swackhammer -- a 14-year-old who was in the apartment with Landrum and initially struck White six times in the head with a large railroad bolt -- immunity. Without granting immunity, it allowed Swackhammer to claim his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and avoid providing testimony that Landrum thought could have helped his case.

    # The district court made an error when it denied Landrum's motion to add the affidavit of homicide reconstruction expert Wayne Hill to the case record.

    # The trial court made an error in the sentencing phase when it excluded specific testimony about Landrum's role in the killing.

    # The Ohio Supreme Court erred by "reweighing" testimony that was never admitted into evidence.

    # The trial court made an error by denying defense counsel's repeated requests for a continuance in proceedings.

    # The defense counsel performed poorly in the mitigation phase of proceedings, which prejudiced the case against Landrum.

    # Landrum did not receive the benefit of a reasonably competent expert in the mitigation phase.

    Among the claims that elicited a large amount of discussion in the court's opinion was that Landrum's defense counsel was ineffective because it did not offer the anticipated testimony of Rameal Coffenberger during the guilt phase of the trial.

    "Landrum argues that Coffenberger would have testified that Swackhammer had confessed to him that it was actually Swackhammer who cut White's throat," the opinion from the court indicates.

    The district court had found that Landrum's attorney's belief the testimony would be considered hearsay and, therefore, would not have been let into evidence if presented, did constitute a deficient performance. Because Landrum had failed to raise the issue at the appropriate steps in the appeals process, however, the Sixth District court rejected his ability to raise the issue now.

    Several of the other claims also were similarly rejected by the federal court because of "procedural default."

    No execution date is listed on the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections offender website at the present time.

    http://www.chillicothegazette.com/ar...305/1002/rss01

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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Landrum's petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was DENIED.

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    Motion filed to set Landrum's execution date

    HILLICOTHE — Ross County’s lone inmate on death row has lost his final appeal.

    The Supreme Court of the United States on Oct. 3 denied 50-year-old Lawrence A. Landrum’s April petition for his case to be reviewed. After receiving word of the denial, Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt said he filed a motion for Landrum’s execution date to be set. Schmidt said it likely will take two to three years before that would happen.

    Landrum was convicted of aggravated murder and burglary in the Sept. 19, 1985, murder of 84-year-old Harold White Sr. at his apartment. White was found a day later when police received an anonymous tip. White had been bludgeoned, his throat cut and there was $80 in cash and 200 nerve pills missing from the apartment.

    Landrum has argued during his numerous appeals that there were a number of errors during his initial trial and that he was unsatisfied with his lawyers. He also has claimed that his juvenile co-defendant in the case should have been given immunity because when he wasn’t, the 14-year-old invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and didn’t testify to provide information Landrum felt was pertinent to his case.

    Landrum currently is housed on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. However, in January, he and nearly all of the death row inmates will be moved to Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

    Executions will continue at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

    http://www.chillicothegazette.com/ar...WS01/111011005

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    Push made to set date of Landrum execution

    A local woman is hoping the Ohio Supreme Court will listen to her plea to move forward with setting an execution date for the man who killed her uncle in September 1985.

    Johnida White remains haunted by the day her uncle, 84-year-old Harold White Sr., was killed in his Chillicothe apartment for a little cash and some nerve pills. White and her mother were going to the Jackson Apple Festival when her mom wanted to stop to see Uncle Harold.

    "I said, 'I promise you, mom, we'll stop when we get back. He was dead up there and we didn't know it," White said, adding they found out later that day.

    The investigation led to now 50-year-old Lawrence Landrum, who was convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated burglary and sentenced to death. Landrum had been one of White's tenants, but he was evicted when rent went unpaid, Johnida White said.

    On Sept. 19, 1985, the investigation concluded that when Harold White returned from dinner, he found Lawrence Landrum searching through drawers in the kitchen. When White challenged Landrum on why he was there and told him to get out, Grant Swackhammer, a 14-year-old who was there with Landrum, hit White over the head five or six times with a large railroad bolt. White was killed when his throat was slit by a large kitchen knife.

    Landrum exhausted his final appeal in October and Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt filed a motion to set the execution date soon after.

    "Once I file that, there's nothing more I can do. It's up to the Ohio Supreme Court to set it," Schmidt said.

    There's no procedure in place to have the process sped up, he added. However, after White's persistence with Schmidt and the Ohio Attorney General's Office, Schmidt said he is filing an ancillary motion that essentially asks the court to please consider speeding up setting the date.

    Joining that will be White's sworn affidavit that pleads the reasons she would like the date set soon.

    "Honestly, it will be 27 years in September. 'm really sick and tired of it," White said.

    The biggest concern for White, however, is there's been so many people in the family who have died waiting for Landrum's execution, including his last daughter, who died in 2011. In her affidavit, White points out that two of her siblings have cancer -- her brother, Dana White, is in a nursing home with brain cancer, and her sister, Louanne Musick, has leukemia.

    "He will never take responsibility or be accountable until the day they put the needle in his arm ... I take no joy in seeing him executed, but for my mental health, I think I need it for closure," White said, adding it has caused her a lot of psychological damage throughout the years.

    Schmidt had previously said he didn't expect a date to be set until two to three years after filing the initial motion.

    Bret Crow, a public information officer for the Ohio Supreme Court, there is no standard time frame for the court to set a date. He said it is done on a case-by-case basis.

    Executions have been delayed during the past few years, first by a six-month moratorium due to concerns with the execution process when a man was stuck with a needle multiple times during his execution. Executions also were delayed briefly when concerns were raised again about the execution process in November.

    Even once dates are set, they can be delayed and changed depending on legal developments.

    http://www.woio.com/story/18930952/m...s-due-in-court
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    Ruling may lead to new trial for Landrum

    CHILLICOTHE — A district court magistrate’s recent ruling gets a local man on death row one step closer to a new trial.

    Lawrence Landrum, 50, had exhausted his appeals, but filed suit against Warden Carl Anderson earlier this year in an effort to get another chance to appeal. Landrum’s attorney Gerald W. Simmons, of Cincinnati, used a March U.S. Supreme Court ruling as the basis for the case.

    Landrum is on death row for the 1985 murder of 84-year-old Harold White Sr. White was killed after he walked in on Landrum and then 14-year-old Grant Swackhammer burglarizing his apartment.

    Since Landrum’s suit was pending when Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt filed a renewed motion requesting Landrum’s execution date be set, Simmons requested in July that the date should not be set. While the Ohio Supreme Court has yet to set an execution date, it hasn’t ruled on either Schmidt’s or Simmons’ motions.

    Last week, though, United States Magistrate Michael R. Merz ruled there is a basis for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to once again consider Landrum’s appeal.

    The decision upholds Simmons’ argument under Martinez v. Ryan that Landrum should get another chance at an appeal essentially because his post-conviction counsel was ineffective.

    During post-conviction proceedings, Landrum’s attorneys attempted to argue that his trial and post-trial attorneys — who were the same — were ineffective when they failed to put a witness on the stand with information that potentially could have helped the defense.
    The witness presumably would have testified that Swackhammer had admitted to him that he, not Landrum, was the one who fatally cut White’s throat.

    Although the court indicated there was merit to the claim, it was rejected due to two procedural issues. One, the claim was not in the body of the petition, only in attached affidavits, and two, they missed the filing deadline by about five years.

    Merz ruled on Aug. 22 that the Martinez decision indicates the appeals court should reconsider the review. However, he also noted in his ruling that while the testimony in question could have led a jury to find him not guilty on one specification of the murder charge that required he be the one who cut White’s throat, another specification did not.

    Both specifications carried the possibility of the death penalty.

    Merz’s ruling isn’t definite, though. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has 14 days to file an objection and then Simmons has 14 days to respond to the objection.

    Although Schmidt is not involved in the suit, he helped explain the next steps. If there are no objections filed, he said the district court judges would accept Merz’s recommendation and the case would return to appeals court.

    However, if there is an objection and subsequent response to that objection, the judges would also consider those along with Merz’s ruling before making a decision.

    If Landrum’s appeal is heard and approved, It could lead to a new trial.

    http://www.chillicothegazette.com/ar...xt%7CFrontpage

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    Supreme Court won't set execution date for Ross County killer

    The Ohio Supreme Court today denied motions to set an execution date for Lawrence Landrum, convicted for slashing the throat of an 84-year-old Chillicothe man in 1985.

    Ross County Prosecutor Matthew S. Schmidt twice last year filed motions asking the court to set an execution date. He argued that justice is long overdue in the case and that two family members of the murder victim, Harold White Sr., have cancer and hoped to live long enough to see his killer put to death.

    But the Ohio Public Defender, which represents Landrum, countered by pointing out that he has appeals pending regarding the claim that he was not adequately represented by previous attorneys.

    The Supreme Court did not cite its reasoning in 6-1 decision; Justice Terrence O’Donnell was the dissenter.

    Landrum had an execution date in 1996, but that was set aside. Numerous appeals have followed. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the case.

    Landrum was convicted for killing White by cutting his throat during a burglary on Sept. 19, 1985. The coroner’s office testified at the trial that they had trouble obtaining a blood sample because White’s body was nearly drained of all blood from the murder.

    http://www.dispatch.com/content/stor...tion-date.html

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On June 23, 2014, Landrum filed an appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir...ts/ca6/14-3591

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    Long wait for justice in grisly 1985 murder

    By Alan Johnson
    The Columbus Dispatch

    If justice delayed is justice denied, the family of Harold White Sr. has been in denial for nearly 29 years.

    White, 84 was brutally murdered on Sept. 19, 1985, at his Ross County home outside Chillicothe. Lawrence Landrum was convicted for killing White by slicing his throat with a knife so deeply that all the blood drained out of his body. Landrum has been on Death Row since 1986. Several other killers who arrived that year are long gone: Jay Scott was executed in 2001 and Richard Cooey in 2008.

    Yet Landrum, 52, hangs on. His case has been largely inactive for a couple of years, although he is part of an on-going case challenging Ohio's lethal injection process. The explanation is layers and layers of appeals, none of which involve Landrum's actual guilt, which was clearly established at his original trial.

    Johnida White, a niece of the slain man, said the case "just goes on and on and on. It makes no sense. It's hard to understand if you’re not a victim of crime.”

    The Ross County prosecutor’s office asked the Ohio Supreme Court at least twice to set an execution date, most recently in 2012. The court rejected the requests, saying Landrum still has appeals pending.

    Even if a date is set, it could be no sooner than two years. Execution dates were set last week through Sept. 2016 – and Landum was not on the list.

    White said members of her family are dying awaiting justice. Her father, the slain man’s brother, died shortly after the murder. Johnida’s brother died a few months ago of brain cancer. Two other family members also have cancer.

    “I would like to see some closure,” she said. “It’s been nearly 30 years.”

    http://www.dispatch.com/content/blog...r-justice.html

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