Dayton-area man’s death sentence on appeal

Lawyers WASHINGTON D.C. — are appealing a Clayton man’s death sentence in the U.S. and Ohio Supreme courts.

A petition for a “writ of certiorari” was filed on Oct. 30 and docketed on Nov. 1 in the nation’s high court in the case of Austin Myers, sentenced to death in Warren County for murdering Justin Back, 18, according to a notice filed on Wednesday in the Ohio Supreme Court.

Ohio Public Defender Bethany O’Neill filed the motion asking the nation’s high court to take up Myers’ case, according to the U.S. Supreme Court docket. No briefs elaborating on the motion had been filed on Wednesday.

In the state’s highest court, lawyer Elizabeth Orrick has claimed, among other things, that lawyers previously handling the appeal of Myers, now 24, provided “ineffective counsel” in the a motion filed on Oct. 30 to reopen the state appeal.

Orrick also claimed Myers’ trial lawyers erred in his defense. Alleged misconduct by prosecutors and errors by Judge Donald Oda II should warrant reopening of the appeal, she wrote.

In response, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell called Orrick’s motion “frivolous” and “frustrating.”

“While we understand this is just another step in the process, frivolous motions like these are why it takes 15-20 years from the time someone receives the death sentence until it is actually carried out. It’s very frustrating not only for prosecutors, but more importantly, for the families of the victims,” Fornshell said in a statement.

Myers was convicted in October 2014 of murdering Back, a childhood friend, at Back’s family’s home outside of Waynesville. Back was about to join the U.S. Navy.

Myers was the youngest person on Ohio’s Death Row at the time.

Timothy Mosley, the other Clayton man charged in the case, entered a plea to life in prison without parole and cooperated with prosecutors.

No court dates or filing deadlines have been scheduled for the state or U.S. appeals.