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Jury indecision spares China Arnold from death penalty
- Related: Photos | More news on the trial
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
DAYTON — China Arnold, the woman convicted of killing her baby in a microwave oven, was spared the death penalty after the jury in her case was unable to agree on a sentencing verdict.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman discharged the jury Wednesday, Sept. 3, after finding jurors were at impasse. The jurors had deliberated from 11:15 a.m. to 6 p.m.
At 6:10 p.m., Wiseman read aloud a note from the jury that said "we find it impossible to reach a sentencing verdict." Wiseman then had the jury come into the courtroom, and she asked the foreman whether there was any possibility of reaching a verdict. He said no.
The same jury convicted Arnold of aggravated murder on Friday.
Wiseman scheduled Arnold's sentencing for 11:30 a.m. Monday.
In a death penalty case, the jury makes a sentencing recommendation, but the judge hands down the sentencing. Under Ohio law, Wiseman can reject a jury recommendation for death, but cannot impose death if the jury doesn't recommend it.
The jury had four options: death, life without the possibility of parole, life with the possibility of parole after 30 years and life with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
According to Wiseman, the default sentence would be one of the life sentences, though it was not clear whether the life without the possibility of parole was still an option.
At 4:15 p.m., the jury sent a note to Wiseman that said they were stuck. After attorneys and Wiseman did some legal research, the judge called the jury back into the courtroom at 4:55 p.m. and ordered them to keep deliberating.
Ohio currently has 182 inmates on death row, including two women, according to the state prison Web Site. They are Donna Roberts of Trumbull County and Nicole Diar of Lorain County.
Since the state assumed the role of executioner from the 88 counties in 1895, Ohio has hanged, electrocuted or lethally injected 369 convicted murderers, including three women.
