SUPCO Declines To Set Execution Date

The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a prosecutor's request to set an execution date for an inmate sentenced to die for slitting a man's throat during a 1985 burglary Ross County Prosecutor Matthew Schmidt argued that Lawrence Landrum had exhausted all state and federal appeals in the killing near Chillicothe.   The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with attorneys for Landrum who said the inmate should be allowed to pursue an additional federal appeal based on poor legal assistance during his trial.  The 51-year-old Landrum argues he couldn't have raised the issue early on because his trial attorneys also worked on his initial appeals. Part of Landrum's claim addresses a decision by his lawyers not to call a witness who would have testified that Landrum's co-defendant killed 84-year-old Harold White.