Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 22

Thread: Curtis L. Clinton - Ohio Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted in triple homicide

    Curtis Clinton spoke for 1 hour on the witness stand in his Erie County case

    BY MARK REITER
    THE TOLEDO BLADE

    SANDUSKY – An Erie County jury today recommended the death penalty for a man convicted in the triple homicide of a woman and her children.

    A sentence in the case will be handed down on Friday in Common Pleas Court.

    Earlier today, Curtis Clinton, 42, denied repeatedly any involvement in the murders of Heather Jackson, 23, and her children, Celina Jackson, 3, and Wayne Jackson, Jr., 20 months on Sept. 8, 2012.

    Clinton, who spoke for more than hour, said he went to Ms. Jackson’s home that night and they had sex, but he said he left the residence and went home.

    “I can look each one of you in the eyes and tell you I didn’t do this,” he said.

    Clinton was the only person to take the witness stand during the penalty phase of the proceeding, which was held today.

    The jury of eight men and four women began deliberations late this morning after receiving instructions from Judge Tygh Tone. In addition to the death penalty, the jury could have recommended life in prison without the possibility of parole, life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, or life in prison with the chance of parole after 25 years.

    The panel found Curtis guilty last week of five counts of aggravated murder, three counts of rape, and one count of aggravated burglary.

    http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...Fyx7ipQPLlw.99

  2. #12
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Man convicted in triple homicide gets death penalty

    Erie County Common Pleas Judge Tygh Tone today accepted a jury's recommendation and imposed the death penalty on Curtis Clinton for a triple homicide in 2012.

    Clinton, 42, was found guilty last week by a jury of aggravated murder in the strangulation deaths of Heather Jackson, 23, and her children, Celina Jackson, 3, and 20-month-old Wayne Jackson, Jr.

    The same panel also reached a unanimous decision on Tuesday that Clinton of Sandusky should be given a lethal injection for the crimes, which included the rape of Celina.

    The woman and her children were found strangled on Sept. 8, 2012 in their John Street home in Sandusky.

    Clinton was convicted in 1999 in Wood County Common Pleas Court in the strangulation death of Misty Keckler, 18.

    https://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2...h-penalty.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  3. #13
    AdamSmith
    Guest
    I do not get what value if any an unsworn statement gives?

    No cross examination???

    The only way to figure out forensically (debate wise) if someone is telling the truth is to cross examine them on their statements.

  4. #14
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Posts
    1,122
    An unsworn statement is still subject to the penalty for perjury.

    28 USC § 1746 - Unsworn declarations under penalty of perjury

    Wherever, under any law of the United States or under any rule, regulation, order, or requirement made pursuant to law, any matter is required or permitted to be supported, evidenced, established, or proved by the sworn declaration, verification, certificate, statement, oath, or affidavit, in writing of the person making the same (other than a deposition, or an oath of office, or an oath required to be taken before a specified official other than a notary public), such matter may, with like force and effect, be supported, evidenced, established, or proved by the unsworn declaration, certificate, verification, or statement, in writing of such person which is subscribed by him, as true under penalty of perjury, and dated, in substantially the following form:

    (1) If executed without the United States: “I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date). (Signature)”.

    (2) If executed within the United States, its territories, possessions, or commonwealths: “I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date). (Signature)”.

    http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1746

  5. #15
    Weidmann1939
    Guest
    Perjury prosecutions are among the hardest convictions for any DA or ADA to secure. The charge of perjury works best as a threat for those who have little to no knowledge or experience with the judicial/legal process.

  6. #16
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    New Ohio death row inmate suspect in 1994 killing

    Police in northern Ohio are reopening their investigation into an unsolved 1994 murder, this time focusing on a man recently sentenced to death in the killing of a young mother and her two children.

    Curtis Clinton, 42, was sentenced to death last week for the September 2012 murders of 23-year-old Heather Jackson, her 3-year-old daughter and her 20-month-old son. Curtis also was convicted of raping the 3-year-old girl.

    Detectives say there are several similarities between that crime and the unsolved April 1994 killing of 73-year-old Ida May "Todd" Franklin, also of Sandusky.

    Police are now starting a new investigation into Franklin's killing from the beginning, including conducting DNA testing, the Sandusky Register reports (http://bit.ly/18tKhi2).

    "I want to solve this to bring closure to the family," Sandusky Detective Dana Newell said.

    Clinton's Cleveland attorney, Bob Dixon, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

    Police reopened the case after a resident reported that Clinton used to live in Franklin's neighborhood and frequently visited her.

    Curtis also knew Jackson, police say.

    On April 9, 1994, Franklin's niece went to her aunt's home and found her body under a mattress propped against a couch. She had been strangled and her throat slit.

    Newell said it didn't appear that Franklin had been sexually assaulted. There was no evidence that the killer had broken into the home, leading police to believe Franklin knew her attacker.

    Detectives hope a bloody knife at the scene may contain traces of the killer's DNA evidence.

    "It makes me feel good that they are trying," said Pam Castile Soirell, another of Franklin's nieces. "They did not forget her, and that lets me know they care."

    Similar to Franklin's killing, Jackson's body was found on Sept. 8, 2012, stuffed between a mattress and a box spring. She and her children had been strangled.

    In addition to the Jackson family's killing, Curtis was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 1997 death of Misty Keckler of Fostoria. Her body was found naked and bound in a bathtub; she had been strangled.

    Although Clinton originally was charged with murder, he later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His attorney had argued that Keckler's death was the result of choking during sexual activity.

    Seven months after Clinton was released from prison, Jackson and her children were killed.

    While he was in jail awaiting trial, Clinton spoke with his mother, according to court testimony.

    "I don't know what it is," Clinton told this mother. "I just lose it. I get overwhelmed."

    http://www.sanduskyregister.com/cgi-bin/liveique.acgi$sch=frontpage?frontpage
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  7. #17
    AdamSmith
    Guest
    There wouldn't be any of the killer's DNA on the knife unless he cut himself.

    And that normally only happens when they inflict multiple stab wounds, because the knife gets slippery with the blood all over it.

    I have no doubt that Clinton is likely the perp in the Franklin killing.

    But I will be surprised if they can prove it.

  8. #18
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    State of Ohio v Curtis L. Clinton

    In today's Ohio Supreme Court opinions, the court DENIED Curtis' motion to unseal portions (juror questionnaires and other documents) of the trial court record.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #19
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Court hears death row inmate’s case

    Man: Prosecutors shouldn’t have linked trial to rape

    By Jim Provance
    Toledo Blade

    COLUMBUS — A man facing execution in the 2012 murders of a Sandusky woman and her two children argued Tuesday before the state’s highest court that prosecutors should not have linked his trial with a rape case from a week earlier.

    The state told the Ohio Supreme Court it had more than enough evidence to convict Curtis L. Clinton, now 46, in the murders alone. But it combined that trial with a pending prior rape case involving a 17-year-old girl for judicial economies of scale and because of similarities between the two cases.


    The court did not immediately issue a ruling.


    Clinton faces execution for killing Heather Jackson, 23, and her children, Celina, 3, and Wayne, Jr., 20 months, on Sept. 8, 2012 in the hours after a party celebrating their move into a new home. Their bodies were found the next day. All had been strangled, and Celina had been raped.


    Clinton was convicted of the three murders, aggravated burglary, and the two rapes.


    At the penalty phase, Clinton said he had engaged in consensual sex with Ms. Jackson but had left the house with the family still alive.


    Police connected him with the crime from phone numbers on Ms. Jackson’s phone and the fact he drove a white Cadillac similar to one reported by the victim in the earlier rape and spotted near the Jackson home via security video from a nearby hospital.


    “I understand we want to save resources, but we’re talking about putting someone to death...” Justice William O’Neill said. “Would there have been a conviction absent the evidence of the earlier rape?”


    Senior Assistant Attorney General Stephen Maher replied, “Undoubtedly, your honor. Undoubtedly. The evidence of guilt for Curtis Clinton relative to the triple homicide was as strong as it gets.”


    Kimberly Rigby, supervising attorney in the Ohio Public Defender's office, urged the court to send the two cases back to Erie County for separate trials.


    “If the cases are so similar — in proximity, Sandusky, white Cadillac, choking, and raping — it just strikes me as being highly probative evidence,” Justice O’Neill said.


    But Ms. Rigby countered, “When you’re using other acts’ evidence to prove MO, it has to be such that it’s a behavioral fingerprint — they’re so similar that it clearly shows identity. In the Jackson case it was ligature strangulation, whereas in the [earlier rape] case, it was manual choking. Other than that, the victims had very little in common.”


    At trial, Clinton refused to let his attorneys formally present mitigating factors — reasons not to impose the death sentence. Justices questioned whether they could now weigh the pros and cons of imposing a death sentence because of Clinton’s decision at trial.


    Ms. Rigby argued that the justices should consider his abusive and violent childhood, his stay in a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt, and his diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.


    He now is on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

    http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...te-s-case.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #20
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Death sentence in murders of Sandusky family upheld

    By Jim Provance
    The Toledo Blade

    COLUMBUS — The conviction and death sentence will stand in the 2012 murders of a 23-year-old Sandusky woman and her two young children.

    The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday rejected arguments from Curtis L. Clinton that prosecutors should not have been able to combine the trials for the strangulation murders with that of a separate rape of a 17-year-old girl he committed a week earlier.

    The court noted the similarities in the choking and rape between the prior rape victim and the three murder victims.

    Clinton faces lethal injection for killing Heather Jackson and her two children, Celina, 3, and Wayne, Jr., 20 months, on Sept. 8, 2012 in the hours following a party celebrating their move into a new home. He was convicted of the three murders, two rapes, and aggravated burglary.

    Evidence from the prior crime helped connect him to the murders.

    “The rapes of the (prior rape victim) and the murder of the Jacksons occurred less than a week apart in Sandusky and involved an assailant driving a white Cadillac,” Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote. “Although the crimes differed in some respects, ‘(a)dmissibility is not adversely affected simply because the other (crimes) differed in some details’.”

    The court was unanimous in its upholding of the convictions, but now resigned Justice William O’Neill dissented when it came to the death sentence. He offered no explanation beyond pointing to prior opinions in which he opined that Ohio’s death penalty is unconstitutional.

    The court found that aggravating circumstances favoring imposition of the death penalty outweighed mitigating circumstances arguing against death.

    At trial, Clinton had refused to allow his lawyers to formally present mitigating evidence, but his lawyers urged the high court to consider his abusive and violence childhood, his stay in a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt, and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.

    “We conclude that the aggravating circumstances as to each aggravated-murder count clearly outweigh the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt,” Chief Justice O’Connor wrote. “With respect to Jackson’s murder, the course-of-conduct and the aggravated-murder-during-rape (related to the rape of C.J.) specifications strongly outweigh the mitigating factors.

    “The three specifications that apply to C.J.’s and W.J.’s murders—course of conduct, murder during a rape, and child murder— overwhelm the mitigating factors,” she wrote, referring to the deaths of Celina and Wayne, Jr.

    http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...ly-upheld.html

Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •