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State Files Response To Schwieterman Brief |
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Tuesday, 04 August 2009 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Managing Editor
COLUMBUS — Prosecuting attorneys in Mercer County Monday filed a brief with Ohio’s high court urging justices to reject a request for a hearing in the case of a Chickasaw man.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Fox rejected the claims made by attorneys for Nicholas Schwieterman, 23, in their brief with the Ohio Supreme Court last month. Attorneys for the Chickasaw man filed a brief seeking a hearing on the grounds that his 24-year prison term for the deaths of four teens was cruel and unusual.
“Schwieterman claims that this court should accept jurisdiction of this case claiming pundits and politicians alike applaud lengthy prison terms and a lost generation of young people,” Fox wrote. “But this case is not about what pundits and politicians applaud. It’s about accountability for individual actions and Schwieterman’s accountability for killing four young men as a direct and proximate cause of driving his car while impaired by alcohol, cocaine and marijuana. It is about appropriate punishment, which in serious cases, includes prison.”
In his filing, Schwieterman’s attorneys — John Poppe and Eric Allen — claim sentencing Schwieterman to 26 years in prison is a burden to Ohio taxpayers. Fox dismissed the claim.
“That argument can always be made to urge that Ohio demolish its prisons,” Fox wrote. “Ensuring the public safety comes at an expense to taxpayers, but an expense that is necessary and essential. Society can ill afford not to protect victims and properly imprison criminals.”
Fox said the trial court did not commit any federal or state Constitutional errors when imposing the prison sentence. Fox also called the prison terms neither cruel nor unusual. Poppe and Allen cited cases where prison terms ranged from six years in the deaths of two during a boat crash and 10 years for the deaths of two in a 2007 Van Wert County case.
“Having then only cited three cases for comparison, and no cases involving cocaine impaired driving causing multiple deaths, defendant claims the 24-year aggregate prison term is grossly disproportionate when compared to drunken driving sentences in Mercer County,” Fox wrote. “This argument is ludicrous.”
Fox also rejected claims the consecutive six-year prison term on each count of involuntary manslaughter was excessive.
“Surely spending six years in prison for each of the young men killed is not shocking to any reasonable person and does not shock the sense of justice of the community,” Fox wrote.
“There is nothing cruel and usual about punishing Schwieterman for killing four young men with consecutive prison terms. It is absurd and outrageous to lump the lives of Jordan Moeller, Jordan Diller, Bradley Roeckner and Jordan Goettemoeller together for sentencing purposes.”
Fox also claimed the court did not abuse its authority by imposing nonminimum, consecutive sentences on Schwieterman.
Fox wrote the sentence was within the statutory limits set under Ohio law.
“Schwieterman’s sentence is not clearly and convincingly contrary to law,” Fox wrote. “It is within the statutory range for involuntary manslaughter.”
Fox wrote that during the sentencing hearing, the sentencing judge weighed all available evidence, statements and testimony before doling out the sentence.
“There is nothing in the record to suggest that a six-year prison sentence for each of the four involuntary manslaughter offenses was unreasonable, arbitrary or unconscionable,” Fox wrote.
In April, Allen argued in front of judges from the Third District Court of Appeals in Lima regarding the prison sentence. On May 18, judges affirmed the sentence and rejected similar arguments contained within Allen’s brief to the Supreme Court.
Justices from the high court can reject the request for a hearing or grant it. No deadline has been set for a decision.
The case stemmed from a March 15, 2008, collision at the intersection of County Road 716A and Brockman Road in Mercer County. Schwieterman, who admitted to drinking and snorting cocaine earlier in the night, had a blood alcohol content of 0.134 and was under the influence of cocaine and marijuana at the time of the collision.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 September 2009 )
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