Maurice Mason: Appeals court tosses death sentence

The panel by a 2-1 vote held that Mason had poor legal help in the

sentencing portion of his 1994 trial in Marion County in the death of

Robin Dennis, 19, of Essex.

The appeals court said Mason's lawyers failed to interview his family and

investigate "the obvious red flags" in state records suggesting that

Mason's childhood was pervaded by violence and exposure to drugs in the

home from an early age.

Prosecutors have six months to hold a new sentencing hearing, the court

said.

The state will review the decision and consider its options, which include

asking for a review by the full court, said Jim Gravelle, a spokesman for

the Ohio attorney general's office.

David Stebbins, who represented Mason on appeal, praised the ruling.

"Obviously we have been litigating this for a long time," he said. "Trial

counsel had simply not done an investigation into his background and his

entire childhood was not presented."

Stebbins said Mason's parents were drug dealers who sold drugs out of

their home, Mason's father ran a prostitution ring and there was violence

in the house - with Mason's mother once shooting his father in front of

their children.

Judge Karen Nelson Moore, joined by Judge Eric Clay, delivered the 6th

Circuit opinion that reversed a 2005 federal district court decision

denying Mason's petition.

Chief Judge Danny Boggs dissented, writing that the opinion "sets an

almost impossibly high bar for defense counsel in capital cases."

Dennis' body was found inside an abandoned building in rural Marion County

on Feb. 13, 1993. An autopsy concluded that she was struck in the head and

her skull was fractured. Mason was convicted June 18, 1994, in Marion

County Common Pleas Court of rape and aggravated murder with a death

penalty specification that the murder occurred during the commission of a

rape.

On the Net: 6th Circuit: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov

(source: Associated Press)

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