Curtis Clinton on death row amid execution 'moratorium'

SANDUSKY — A man convicted of killing three people in Sandusky remains on death row and in the middle of an appeal effort. Curtis Clinton, 49, currently incarcerated in a Chillicothe state prison, is one of 140 people on death row awaiting execution as Ohio struggles to get drugs needed to perform lethal injections. Clinton is listed among other death row inmates in a newly released capital crimes report from the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Clinton was originally scheduled to be executed on Sept. 15, 2021, but that's since been delayed indefinitely. Ohio has not executed any death row inmates since 2018 due to the injection supply problem. In fact, Ohio is now under an "unofficial moratorium" on executions as a result, Gov. Mike DeWine said in December 2020. Lethal injection is the state's only available option for death sentences — death by electrocution was banned by state legislators in 2001 — and the governor said the state's legislature has not offered support for an alternate execution method, the Associated Press reported. Curtis Clinton restrained by law enforcement at his trial in 2013. Register file photo Clinton's appeal and postconviction effort Clinton went to trial in the Erie County Court of Common Pleas in 2013 for the 2012 killings of Heather Jackson, 23, and her two children, Celina, 3, and Wayne Jr., 18 months. He also choked and raped a 17-year-old girl a week earlier, and previously served 13 years in prison for the strangling death of 18-year-old Misty Keckler in 1997. Heather Jackson, left, and her two children Wayne Jr. and Celina/Provided photos Clinton was convicted on all counts of aggravated murder, rape and aggravated burglary, and was sentenced to death. He appealed his conviction, which was denied by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2018. The state's Supreme Court did rule that an execution date for Clinton cannot be scheduled until he's exhausted all of his appeal options. Clinton also petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take jurisdiction of his case, but the nation's highest court denied the request in 2018. Clinton has an ongoing postconviction relief effort pending in Erie County's common pleas court. The state filed a motion in September 2020 to dismiss Clinton's post-conviction action. Both the state and lawyers representing Clinton agreed to simultaneously submit their filings before Judge Tygh Tone, the same judge who sentenced Clinton, makes a ruling, according to court records. The deadline to make those filings is May 7.