×

Supreme Court refuses Lorraine case

By RENEE FOX

Tribune Chronicle

WARREN — The country’s highest court refused to review the case of a Trumbull County man on Ohio’s death row.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday released a list of orders Monday denying numerous pleas for the justices to examine their cases to ensure there were no irregularities in lower court proceedings. Among them, the court denied the writ requested by attorneys for Charles L. Lorraine, 52, requested in April.

Lorraine is scheduled to die March 15, 2023, for the 1986 slayings of 77-year-old Raymond Montgomery and his bedridden wife, Doris, 80, inside their Warren home on Haymaker Avenue NW.

He was convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, robbery and complicity to burglary, and is being held in Chillicothe Correctional Institution, according to state records.

Defense attorneys argued that the way Ohio hands down death sentences is unconstitutional.

Lorraine’s attorneys wanted the Supreme Court to review an 11th District Court of Appeals ruling upholding a Trumbull County Common Pleas Court ruling that went against Lorraine’s claims for relief from the death penalty, a decision supported by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Charles Morrow, Trumbull County assistant prosecutor, responded in opposition to Lorraine’s writ.

The Supreme Court denied a similar writ in November, according to the prosecutors.

In 2010, a Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judge denied a claim from Lorraine that he was too intellectually disabled to be executed, and admitted he used the appeal process as a ploy to put off his death by seven years, according to the prosecutor’s response in opposition.

After he exhausted state and federal appeals, Lorraine’s execution date was set for Jan. 18, 2012. However, on Jan. 11, 2012, a temporary stay was placed on the executions of three death row inmates, including Lorraine’s, as a result of a challenge of Ohio’s death row protocol. On March 9, a U.S. District Court dissolved the stay of execution for the three inmates.

Lorraine is one of 138 people on Ohio’s death row, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

rfox@tribtoday.com

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
     

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.85/week.

Subscribe Today