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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2011 > May > 16 > Entry
China Arnold trial: Sentencing phase delayed for mental exam
DAYTON - The sentencing phase of China Arnold’s third trial will be delayed by three days to accommodate a defense request for a mental exam of the defendant.
The jury convicted Arnold, accused of killing her baby in a microwave oven, of aggravated murder on Friday. Because Arnold’s indictment includes a death penalty specification, her trial will have a second phase: to decide whether she should be sentenced to death. That phase was to start Monday morning.
During that second phase, the jury will be asked to weigh aggravating circumstance of the crime - that Arnold was convicted of killing a child under the age of 13 - against mitigating factors presented by the defense. Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman told the defense Friday that Arnold had the right to a mental exam, under Ohio statutes covering the death penalty.
The report from that exam is to be on Wiseman’s desk by Wednesday afternoon, and jurors will begin hearing evidence Thursday morning.
Under law, Wiseman cannot sentence Arnold to death without a recommendation for death from the jury. However, Wiseman could override a death recommendation from the jury.
This is Arnold’s third trial. Her first ended with a mistrial. She was convicted of aggravated murder during the first phase of the second trial. However, that jury deadlocked on whether or not to make a death recommendation. Wiseman then sentenced her to the maximum penalty she could without that recommendation: life without the possibility of parole.
Arnold, 31, is accused of killing 28-day-old Paris Talley on Aug. 30, 2005, at her home at 415 Hall Ave. in the since-demolished Parkside Homes public housing complex. The Ohio Second District Court of Appeals reversed that conviction in November.
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