Monday, February 01, 2010

Ohio death penalty stay granted

The Ohio Supreme Court this morning granted a stay of execution to Kerry Perez, "until exhaustion of all state post-conviction proceedings, including any appeals." (Here)

Perez was found guilty of two death penalty specifications for aggravated murder in the commission of a violent felony in 2003 with the Supreme Court affirming last December. Among the 13 allegations rejected by the Court then was a claim by defense attorneys that the trial court should not have admitted into evidence tape recordings of conversations between Perez and his wife that were made with her consent but without his knowledge during her visits with him at the Clark County jail. Perez contended that admitting secret recordings of what he believed to be confidential communications with his spouse into evidence violated the marital-communications privilege set forth in R.C. 2945.42 and denied him due process of law. ( See Court’s Summary ).

A motion for reconsideration was denied last week, with his motion for a stay of his March 2nd. execution being filed the same day.

1 comment:

Mini Boden said...

It really depends on perspective. Some view individual rights more than society safety in general. To each of it's own