Court grants stay of execution

Court grants stay of execution

Local killer gets more time; victim's family scorns ruling

BY ANNIE HALL | ENQUIRER COLUMBUS BUREAU

Cincinnati killer Jerome Henderson, scheduled to be executed by the state Tuesday, may have received some extra life Friday when the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted him a stay of execution.

The Ohio Attorney General's office is immediately appealing the stay hoping they can keep the execution on schedule, said spokesman Bob Beasley.

The Cincinnati-based court did not give a reason for its 2-1 ruling. Judge Alice Batchelder dissented.


"I think this is a waste of taxpayers' money," said Shirley Acoff, the victim's sister. "How would those judges feel if, 21 years after Henderson had killed their sister, their family was still being tortured by her death while he gets to live and the taxpayers support him?"

In March 1985, Mary Acoff was found nude in her Mt. Auburn apartment with multiple stabbings - 13 to her throat alone - her head and upper body beaten.

Witnesses reported seeing Henderson near the scene of the crime and police found Henderson's fingerprints in Acoff's kitchen and her blood on Henderson's coat, according to the prosecutor's report.

"He did it, and he's shown no remorse," said JoAnn Acoff, the victim's daughter. "The law says that the sentence for killing somebody for absolutely no reason at all is death. Why is this man still alive?"

Henderson's attorney, Dave Stebbins, said he suspected an appeal would not be successful. He said Henderson's case probably wouldn't be resolved until another case, Cooey v. Taft, is settled.

In that case, lawyers are arguing that lethal injection - Ohio's procedure for the death penalty - should be declared cruel and unusual punishment and, consequently, unconstitutional.

Since Henderson made many of the same claims regarding lethal injection, a previous court allowed Henderson to join in Cooey's case but did not stay his execution.

Ron Springman of the Hamilton County Prosecutor's office said that an oral hearing was scheduled in the Cooey case on Thursday at the 6th circuit.

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