AG Yost calls ruling a win for public safety

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost called a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Ohio case Tuesday a win for public safety and help to states’ efforts to swiftly impose justice.

The court overturned a lower court ruling that ordered the warden at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution to take a deathrow inmate to a Columbus hospital for a brain scan. The inmate asked a federal court reviewing his conviction to order the scan but did not say how the tests could help his case or be legally considered.

“We were confident that the Supreme Court would see Raymond Twyford’s request for what it was — a needless ‘field trip’ and a stall tactic,” Yost said. “The decision limits opportunities for prisoner escape and mayhem and expedites the administration of justice.”

The court ordered the transportation order and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit agreed with the decision.

Yost petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Shoop v. Twyford.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in writing for the majority, said the lower courts erred in ordering Twyford’s transportation without first determining “that the evidence he hoped to find would be useful” to his case.

Yost said the ruling means criminals challenging a state conviction in federal court will have to prove they can use the evidence being sought before they are permitted to gather it.

“Doctors and nurses have hard jobs already,” Yost said. “Federal courts should not make it harder by giving violent criminals a trip to a public hospital based on a speculative hope that the trip might turn up useful evidence. I am grateful that the Supreme Court agreed.”

The case began almost 30 years ago when Twyford murdered a man in Jefferson County. Twyford confessed to the crime and was sentenced to death.