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High court declines to hear death row inmate’s appeals

The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday denied two motions by an attorney for death row inmate Nathaniel E. Jackson, including one asking them to reconsider their decision last year not to vacate his death sentence.

The court announced it will not hear Jackson’s appeals because of lack of jurisdiction.

Jackson, 45, remains on death row, with a scheduled execution date of July 15, 2020, according to Trumbull County assistant Prosecutor LuWayne Annos.

However, Annos said Jackson has two appeals still pending: a Writ for Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking re-sentencing, which was denied last August by Ohio’s high court, and an appeal before Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice, which seeks a motion for leave for a new trial.

Rice took over the case from the late Judge John Stuard, who re-sentenced Jackson to death on Aug. 14, 2012, after being ordered to do so by the Ohio Supreme Court because of the judge’s error during the first sentencing after the 2002 trial.

Jackson was found guilty in the 2001 murder of Robert Fingerhut of Howland and was sentenced to death by Stuard. Jackson remains on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

The 11th District Court of Appeals vacated Jackson’s initial death sentence when it found an assistant prosecutor improperly assisted the trial judge in preparing the sentencing opinion.

Jackson’s co-defendant, Donna Roberts, also convicted of murdering Fingerhut, is awaiting a decision in her third appeal for relief from the Ohio high court. Roberts, the only woman on Ohio’s death row, claimed Rice had re-sentenced her without physically seeing her in court for a penalty phase.

In Jackson’s appeals to the Ohio Supreme Court, the court on Wednesday refused Jackson’s bid for post-conviction relief that Rice denied in 2013 and the 11th District court affirmed in 2014. The high court also refused to hear Jackson’s appeal for a new trial, which both Stuard and the 11th District court denied.

An attempt to reach Jackson’s attorney, assistant state public defender, Randall L. Porter of Columbus, was unsuccessful.

Donna Roberts lived with Fingerhut, her ex-husband, on Avalon Drive in Howland and Fingerhut had two life insurance policies worth a total of $550,000 in which Roberts was named the sole beneficiary. Roberts began an affair with Jackson, which continued while Jackson was confined in the Lorain Correctional Institution.

While in prison, Jackson and Roberts exchanged numerous letters and spoke by phone, with the prison authorities recording many of the conversations. Passages from the letters and calls indicated the two plotted to murder Fingerhut, and at Jackson’s request, Roberts purchased a ski mask and pair of gloves for Jackson to use during the murder. Roberts picked up Jackson from Lorain Correctional when he was released and two days later, Fingerhut was shot to death in his home.

Police searched the house and found 145 handwritten letters and cards that Jackson sent to Roberts and when they recovered Fingerhut’s stolen car in Youngstown, they found a bag with Jackson’s name on it with 139 letters Roberts had sent to him. When Jackson was arrested, he claimed he shot Fingerhut in self-defense.

gvogrin@tribtoday.com

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