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Death row inmate Donna Roberts has filed with the Ohio Supreme Court a request to delay her execution for the 2001 murder of her husband, Robert Fingerhut, in their Howland home.
In the filing seeking to stop her execution, attorneys David L. Doughton and Robert A. Dixon state the court has scheduled Roberts to be executed Aug. 12.
"Although an execution date for Ms. Roberts does not appear on the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction schedule, there is a pending order from this Court that has not been stayed," according to the court filing. "To ensure no confusion on this issue, Roberts is requesting a stay of this order."
The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld Roberts' murder conviction three times. Roberts is the only female facing execution in Ohio.
In October 2013, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the case back to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for resentencing. It was the second time the high court had vacated Roberts' death sentence.
In the spring of 2014, Trumbull Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice, who was appointed to the case after the retirement and subsequent death of Judge John Stuard in 2013, resentenced Roberts to death.
The Ohio court also refused to consider a Sixth Amendment argument for Roberts.
Roberts appealed her case to the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2017. Her petition was denied on Feb. 20, 2018. While the direct appeal was pending, the parties agreed an amended post-conviction petition, in which claims that were deemed moot were actually dropped, would be appropriate.
The court also agreed the proceeding would stay in abeyance until her direct appeal process was completed. The agreed judgment was filed on July 20, 2015. On Dec. 20, 2019, the trial court granted the state's summary judgment to dismiss the petition without an evidentiary hearing.
She filed her appeal of the post-conviction denial to the 11th District Court of appeals. The briefs have been filed. Oral arguments are set for July 22.
The case arose from the murder of Fingerhut, who operated Greyhound bus terminals in the Mahoning Valley. Roberts lived with her former husband in an Avalon Drive home in Howland.
At some point, Roberts had an affair with Nathaniel Jackson, who was sent to prison in 2001. During incarceration, Jackson and Roberts exchanged letters and phone calls.
Prison authorities had monitored this communication, which revealed a murder plot and served as key evidence during their trials.
Jackson was released in December 2001, with Roberts picking him up at the prison. Two days after Jackson's release, Fingerhut, 57, was shot to death at the home.
Jackson was convicted of murder and also sentenced to death.
rsmith@tribtoday.com