Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Attorneys for Ohio’s only condemned female killer are asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider a ruling upholding her death sentence for the third time.
Lawyers for death row inmate Donna Roberts said Thursday that allowing a judge who didn’t oversee the original trial to sentence her was unconstitutional.
The court again upheld Roberts’ death sentence last month.
Justice Terrence O’Donnell wrote for the court majority in that decision, rejecting constitutional arguments about the new judge.
The 73-year-old Roberts was accused of planning her ex-husband’s murder with a boyfriend in hopes of collecting insurance money.
The boyfriend, Nathaniel Jackson, also was sentenced to death in the 2001 slaying.