Court made right decision to reverse convictions in M-L death penalty case, appellate lawyers say

The Ohio Supreme Court must deny the Lake County prosecutor’s request to reconsider its decision to reverse Joseph Thomas’ convictions in a Mentor-onthe-Lake death penalty case, according to Thomas’ appellate lawyers.

The former Perry Township man was found guilty in 2012 for the 2010 rape and murder of Annie McSween, 49, of Mentor.

Lake County Common Pleas Judge Richard L. Collins Jr. chose to adopt the jury’s recommendation of death rather than downgrade the sentence to life in prison.

In a 4-3 vote earlier this month, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and ordered a new trial be scheduled for Thomas.

The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office then filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that the high court’s majority neglected to fully analyze the issues, confused legal standards and failed to use its own law rather than “cherrypicking cases from outside Ohio” to make its decision.

Now, Timothy F. Sweeney, one of Thomas’ appellate lawyers, is arguing that the state’s request for reconsideration is groundless. “... The Court carefully considered all the facts and arguments over a period of years and concluded that based on the lack of ‘overwhelming independent evidence of guilt’ a new trial is necessary ‘to prevent a manifest miscarriage of justice.’ Nothing in the state’s motion to reconsider refutes the majority’s careful analysis and conclusion,” Sweeney stated in his Oct. 20 opposition to the state’s motion for reconsideration.

McSween’s body was found on Nov. 26, 2010, in a wooded area outside of Mario’s Lakeway Lounge on Andrews Road in Mentor-on-the-Lake, where she worked as a bartender.

She was strangled and stabbed multiple times in the neck and back on Black Friday. The power lines to the bar had been cut, and McSween and two other women had their tires slashed.

Thomas has maintained his innocence and claimed he had no motivation to commit the crime.

Although Thomas had frequently been seen carrying a blue pocketknife before that night, it was not recovered during the criminal investigation. At trial, prosecutors introduced five other knives Thomas owned, describing them as “full Rambo combat knives.”

Justice Terrence O’Donnell wrote the court’s lead opinion, which determined the trial court committed plain error by admitting those five knives that prosecutors knew were not used in the crime into evidence. The majority found a reasonable probability that the error affected the outcome of the trial, and that reversal was necessary to prevent a manifest miscarriage of justice.

“The state claims that the Court has ignored Ohio cases on this evidentiary issue, in favor of cases from other jurisdictions. That is a false and unfair accusation,” Sweeney said in his motion.

The three dissenting justices found the prosecution presented substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict independent of the admitted knife evidence.

Thomas