COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An inmate sentenced to die in the slayings of five fellow inmates during a 1993 prison riot in Ohio is fighting a prosecutor’s request to set his execution date.
Lawyers for 49-year-old Keith LaMar told the Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday the only evidence against him came from inmates that authorities never corroborated and that further proof of his innocence was withheld.
The filing also challenges the death penalty as disproportionately affecting minorities. LaMar is black.
LaMar was convicted of aggravated murder in 1995 for the deaths of five inmates during a riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings.
A special prosecutor asked the court last week to set an execution date, saying LaMar had exhausted his appeals.
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