U.S. Supreme Court turns down appeal of Clayton man’s death sentence

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to consider an appeal of a Clayton man’s death sentence.

This morning, the high court's decision was filed in the Ohio Supreme Court in the case of Austin Myers, 24, a Clayton man sentenced to death in Warren County for murdering Justin Back, 18, of Warren County.

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Ohio Public Defender Bethany O’Neill claimed that the high court’s ruling in another death penalty case, Hurst v. Florida, “rendered Ohio’s death penalty scheme unconstitutional,” in asking the nation’s high court to take up Myers’ case.

Myers was convicted in 2014 of murdering Back, a childhood friend. Back was about to join the U.S. Navy.

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Myers became the youngest person on Ohio’s Death Row at the time.

The Ohio Supreme Court has yet to rule on a motion to reopen the state appeal.

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