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Thread: Shawn Eric Ford, Jr. - Ohio

  1. #41
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    State v. Ford

    In today's opinions, the Ohio Supreme Court granted Ford's motion for stay of execution and ordered that no execution date shall be set while this appeal remains pending.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  2. #42
    There was a TV show about this guy & his crimes & the trial on last night here in the UK, it featured interviews with lawyers & jurors & family members (both families) but not Ford himself. I found it very odd that the jury rather than the judge were required to decide not only upon guilt/innocence but on the sentence, I do think they came to the right decision & if I'd been on the jury then I certainly would have voted for execution; re mitigation - I'm really sick & tired of hearing about poverty & family breakdown being cited as an excuse for heinous crimes, my dad left my mum & I when I was 6 months old money was very tight indeed, but I have never murdered anyone!

    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Ford's Facebook page

    Shawn Ford
    March 22 via mobile

    "I got 99 problems but being a bitch ain't 1"

    Chelsea Shobert's Facebook page
    Photos of a baby & of her smoking some sort of substance - clearly she's a product of nature rather than nurture....

  3. #43
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Convicted double murderer Shawn Ford writes letter asking to end appeals, but changes mind

    By Stephanie Warsmith
    The Akron Beacon-Journal

    “Go ahead and kill me.”

    This was part of a rambling, hand-written letter that convicted double murderer Shawn Ford recently wrote to Tom Parker, a federal magistrate and former Summit County judge who presided over Ford’s trial. Ford was sentenced to death in June 2015.

    Court officials interpreted Ford’s letter as a request to cease his appeals — and schedule his execution date.

    Ford’s public defenders, however, told Visiting Judge Richard McMonagle on Wednesday morning during a brief court session in Summit County Common Pleas Court that they met with Ford and he wants to continue his appeals.

    “Ford is depressed,” said Rachel Troutman, an assistant state public defender. “He did not understand his letter would be interpreted as a motion.”

    McMonagle said Ford’s request will be withdrawn and his appeals will continue.

    Prosecutors didn’t object to the judge’s decision to allow Ford’s appeals to proceed, though they pledged to continue to represent the victims, Jeffrey and Margaret “Peggy” Schobert of New Franklin, who were beaten to death with a sledgehammer in April 2013.

    “Our main goal has always been to fight for Jeff and Peg Schobert,” Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said in a prepared statement. “Shawn Ford was convicted of beating them to death — and needs to be held accountable.”

    Ford, 23, was convicted of the slayings of the Schoberts, the parents of his then-girlfriend, Chelsea Schobert. Ford was 18 at the time and was accompanied by Jamall L. Vaughn, then 14, who was sentenced to life in prison. The teens walked 8 miles from Akron to reach the Schoberts’ home.

    At the time of the assault. Chelsea Schobert, then 18, was in critical condition with injuries from a knife attack by Ford days earlier. Prosecutors say Ford killed the Schoberts because the couple planned to end his relationship with their daughter.

    Ford apologized and cried during his sentencing, saying, “I messed up. I made a mistake.”

    Parker followed the recommendation of a Summit County jury and sentenced Ford to death. He said he took into account Ford’s young age and “difficult upbringing,” which included personality problems, a broken home, domestic violence incidents and learning difficulties. The judge, however, said the evidence showed Ford “demonstrated a carefully thought-out and calculated plan” to kill the Schoberts.

    In the June 25 letter Ford wrote to Parker, Ford said he owes the Schobert family. He said he doesn’t think he will win his case and doesn’t see the point in continuing his appeal process, which is currently before the Ohio Supreme Court.

    “[I] just don’t want to do 20 years just to get killed when they can kill me within the next 5 years or now,” Ford said in the letter, which is mostly devoid of punctuation or capitalization. “[I] wish [I] can switch places with other guys that got dates.”

    Ford concluded his one-page letter by saying he hopes it makes everyone happy that he’s giving up.

    “[Y]ou guys win,” he wrote. “[G]ive me a date and lets [sic] roll with it.”

    This wasn’t the first time Ford reached out to Parker, who was appointed a federal magistrate in March 2016. Ford wrote a letter to Parker after he was convicted of murder and before he was sentenced, urging the judge to impose the death penalty. Ford said if he was sentenced to life, he would “kill everybody” when he got out of prison. He said he hoped Parker died soon and that someone killed the judge’s family.

    “F*** life and f*** everybody,” the rambling, expletive-filled earlier letter concluded.

    Brad Gessner, chief counsel for the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office, hung this letter from Ford on his office door for a long time after the trial concluded. He pointed to the letter from Ford — the last person sentenced to death in Summit County — as an example of why the death penalty is needed in Ohio and why his office pursues capital punishment.

    “These are the people we need protection from,” Gessner told the Beacon Journal in a 2017 series about the death penalty. “I think it’s a horrible thing, but we have to have it. I’d prefer he [Ford] never killed anyone.”

    https://www.ohio.com/akron/news/loca...-will-continue
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

  4. #44
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Ford's Facebook page

    Shawn Ford
    March 22 via mobile

    "I got 99 problems but being a bitch ain't 1"

    Chelsea Shobert's Facebook page

    Hmm. Both Facebook pages are still active.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  5. #45
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Chelsea hasn't post in over a year. I wonder if she is in prison for drugs again?
    "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

  6. #46
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Court hears case of inmate who killed girlfriend's parents

    The Ohio Supreme Court has set oral arguments in the case of a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents with a sledgehammer 10 days after stabbing their daughter.

    Shawn Ford Jr. was convicted by a Summit County jury in 2015 of aggravated murder and other charges in the slayings of Margaret and Jeffrey Schobert 2 years earlier.

    That same jury recommended the 24-year-old Ford receive the death penalty for killing Margaret Schobert, and the judge agreed.

    Death penalty cases in Ohio are automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court, which has set arguments for Jan. 8.

    Defense attorneys unsuccessfully argued that Ford's low IQ should have prevented the judge from sentencing their client to death.

    (source: Associated Press)
    "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

  7. #47
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    On Tuesday January 8th, the Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral argument on direct appeal for Shawn E. Ford. You may view the live stream court proceeding here beginning at 9:00 am EST

    Akron Man Convicted in 2013 Double Homicide Raises Issues in Death-Penalty Appeal
    State of Ohio v. Shawn E. Ford, Case no. 2015-1309
    Summit County Common Pleas Court


    The Ohio Supreme Court will consider the automatic appeal of Shawn E. Ford, who was convicted for the March 2013 felonious assault of his girlfriend, Chelsea Schobert, and the April 2013 murders of her parents, Margaret and Jeffrey Schobert. The trial court sentenced Ford to death in June 2015.

    Young Woman Assaulted, Parents Found Dead Soon After

    The weekend after Chelsea Schobert’s 18th birthday in March 2013, she, Ford, and a few friends celebrated her birthday at the home of one of Ford’s friends. Schobert was injured and hospitalized. She, Ford, and the two friends initially told police she had been hurt during a drug deal in Kent.

    While Schobert was hospitalized, her parents decided she shouldn’t have contact with anyone except them.

    On April 2, 2013, a contractor working at the Schoberts’ home in New Franklin Township, south of Akron, discovered Schobert’s parents dead in their bedroom. Both died of blunt force trauma inflicted with a sledgehammer, found in the bedroom. Jeffrey Schobert also had been stabbed. Some personal items were stolen, along with a vehicle.

    That same day, police arrested Ford, then 18, for falsification in his statements to law enforcement about the assault on Chelsea Schobert. An inmate housed with Ford in jail contacted police and told them Ford had shared information about the Schoberts’ murders.

    Ford and a juvenile were charged in the murders. Ford was indicted on 11 counts, including the aggravated murders of Margaret and Jeffrey Schobert, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and the felonious assault on Chelsea Schobert, along with death-penalty specifications.

    At Trial, Friends Say Ford Attacked Girlfriend


    The friends with Ford and Schobert the night of the assault testified at trial that there was no drug deal in Kent. Ford assaulted her, they stated, and one said he saw Ford get a knife. Schobert testified, also saying that Ford attacked her.

    The state argued that, 10 days after the assault, Ford and the juvenile accomplice went into the Schobert home and beat Jeffrey Schobert to death. They then waited for Margaret Schobert to arrive home and killed her.

    After jury deliberations began, two jurors were excused for different reasons, and alternate jurors took their places. The jury found Ford guilty on all counts. Following the trial’s October 2013 mitigating phase, the jury recommended the death penalty for Margaret Schobert’s murder and life without parole for Jeffrey Schobert’s murder. The trial court agreed, imposing those sentences and an eight-year prison term for the felonious assault.

    Because Ford was sentenced to death, he is entitled to an automatic appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. He has submitted 23 legal arguments to the Court asking to overturn his conviction and death sentence.

    Did Ford Waive His Rights, and Were His Statements to Police Coerced?

    During multiple interviews with law enforcement officials, Ford was read his Miranda rights. He contends, though, that police didn’t obtain a valid waiver of those rights that is needed before questioning. He argues that police didn’t make an effort to ensure that he understood the rights and that he wanted to waive them.

    His brief states that he is of diminished intelligence and was 18 years old at the time of his arrest. In Ford’s view, the police coerced him into making incriminating statements by misrepresenting the evidence they had and the consequences of not cooperating. The police didn’t receive a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver from him, and his statements to them should not have been allowed at trial, he argues.

    The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office counters that Ford never invoked his right to remain silent and didn’t ask for an attorney. The prosecutor notes that Ford’s three interviews weren’t especially lengthy – 74 minutes, 72 minutes, and 40 minutes – and he wasn’t deprived of physical needs or mistreated. Although Ford claims that police lied to him, deception by police during an interrogation doesn’t automatically make a subject’s statements involuntary or coerced, the prosecutor maintains.

    Does Ford Have an Intellectual Disability?

    In October 2013, the trial court determined that Ford was competent to stand trial. After the jury’s verdicts, the court held a hearing on Ford’s intellectual functioning. Ford’s IQ scores ranged from 62 to 80 over the years, Ford’s brief states. An intellectual disability would bar the state from executing him.

    The prosecutor, Ford’s attorneys, and the court each hired a mental health professional to evaluate Ford. The prosecutor’s expert and the court’s expert conducted interviews with Ford. However, he refused to participate in another evaluation, which would have been with the defense’s expert. That doctor provided an assessment only based on Ford’s records.

    The prosecutor stresses that the trial court stated all of the experts concluded that Ford didn’t have an intellectual disability.

    Ford asserts, though, that the conclusions were based on the wrong standards for determining whether a person has an intellectual disability. The combination of below average or borderline IQ results, several deficits with adaptive behavior skills (such as not living on his own, not handling his own finances, never obtaining a driver’s license), and the onset of these deficits before he was 18 means the trial court’s determination must be reversed, Ford maintains.

    The prosecutor disagrees, pointing to multiple standards used to make these determinations.

    Should Assault and Murder Trials Been Separate?

    Ford argues that the assault on Schobert and her parents’ murders should have been tried separately because the criminal conduct in each was distinct. No witnesses and no evidence overlapped between the two crimes. The only connection, in Ford’s view, is that the state alleged he committed both the assault and the murders.

    Had the trials been separate, evidence related to Schobert’s assault wouldn’t be permitted in the murder trial, or vice versa, he contends. By trying everything together, Ford asserts that the state argued he committed one crime because of the other crimes or because he is a bad person. That approach is prohibited by court rules, he states.

    The prosecutor responds that the events were connected. Schobert’s parents wouldn’t allow Ford to see their daughter in the hospital after the assault. The assault indicated motive for and intent related to the murders, the prosecutor maintains. Court rules allow evidence of other bad acts to be admitted at trial when the evidence demonstrates motive for a crime, the prosecutor states.

    Did Juror Actions Undermine Verdicts?

    Ford also raises issues related to the jury, including juror misconduct. One juror had worked in the past at the prosecutor’s office and also attended church with one of the testifying detectives. The juror informed the court of both of these facts, and the court determined she could sit on the jury.

    During deliberations, the bailiff alerted the judge that a juror may have interjected an interpretation of the law, based on the individual’s training, into the jury’s discussions. It then was discovered that a juror was Facebook friends with several prosecutors. That revelation led the court to dismiss the juror.

    Ford argues that the trial court should have declared a mistrial, and that he should receive a new trial because of the juror misconduct. The prosecutor counters that the court found there was no reason to believe the jury had been tainted. Ford’s rights weren’t violated, the prosecutor reasons.

    Ford also points to two Akron Beacon Journal articles. The newspaper interviewed the juror removed for her Facebook connections, as well as a juror who was part of the final jury that convicted Ford and sentenced him to death. The removed juror stated she had been a holdout on early votes, other jurors tried to pressure her to convict, and there were blowups and shouting. The second juror interviewed said she didn’t think Ford should receive the death penalty for Margaret Schobert’s murder. Jurors bullied her and she eventually relented, she told the paper.

    Jurors are told they must be respectful and open to other viewpoints, Ford indicates. Harassment and bullying infected the deliberations and violated his rights to a fair trial and an impartial jury, he maintains. The prosecutor’s brief focused on the juror who remained for the full trial. Acknowledging that court rules of evidence prohibit jurors from intimidating each other, the prosecutor asserts that heavy-handed influencing and even bullying don’t require a court to call into question an individual juror’s verdict.

    Other Claims Made by Ford

    Among the other issues Ford raises, he argues that gruesome crime photos shouldn’t have been shown at trial, it was improper to shackle him during trial, the prosecutor disparaged defense counsel during closing arguments, and his attorneys were ineffective in several ways.

    Attorney General Files Brief

    The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has filed an amicus curiae brief stating that Ohio’s capital-sentencing system is not unconstitutional.

    - Kathleen Maloney

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

    Contacts
    Representing Shawn E. Ford Jr.: Lynn Maro, 330.758.7700

    Representing the State of Ohio from the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office: Jacquenette Corgan, 330.643.8340
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  8. #48
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    Death rejected for man who killed ex-girlfriend’s parents

    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected the death sentence for a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a sledgehammer and ordered a new sentencing hearing.

    Shawn Ford Jr. was convicted by a Summit County jury in 2015 of aggravated murder and other charges in the slayings of Margaret and Jeffrey Schobert two years earlier.

    Defense attorneys argued that Ford’s low IQ should have prevented the judge from sentencing their client to death. The high court’s 5-2 ruling on Thursday upheld Ford’s conviction but ordered a hearing to determine if Ford’s intellectual disability prohibits his execution.

    Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said the judge and jurors correctly determined that Ford should be sentenced to death. Walsh said she’ll continue to fight for justice for the slain couple.

    https://apnews.com/f957891ae6274df28ce26a716d533883

  9. #49
    He didnt even have his death sentence overturned. He just got a new hearing on some retardation claim

  10. #50
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference June 11, 2020.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-1191.html
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