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Tall Madge Express
March 2, 2015
The Ohio Supreme Court agreed Feb. 23 to postpone an initial execution date for the man convicted in the 2008 shooting death of a Twinsburg police officer.
The routine stay notice gives Ashford Thompson time to work through the appeals process, as is standard in such death penalty cases.
Thompson was found guilty in 2010 of two counts of aggravated murder after shooting 33-year-old Joshua Miktarian multiple times in the head during a late-night traffic stop.
During oral arguments before the state’s high court last year, legal counsel for Thompson said his death sentence should be overturned due legal and procedural errors made during his trial, among other issues.
His legal counsel also argued that Thompson was a home health-care nurse and religious man who had no other convictions for violent crimes and who did not set out to commit murder.
Prosecutors, however, cited threatening comments made by Thompson at a bar before the shooting and other evidence in seeking affirmation of his death sentence.
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld Thompson’s death sentence in a 4-3 decision in October, with a majority of justices agreeing that the legal process instituting a death sentence was conducted in proper order, and the penalty was appropriate for the crime.
The state’s high court set an April 2017 execution in the case, though that date was expected to be postponed, as Thompson worked through the appeals process.
Justices agreed Feb. 23 to stay the execution date “until exhaustion of all state post-conviction proceedings, including an appeals,” according to documents.
Marc Kovac is the Dix Capital Bureau Chief. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.
