Ohio appeals ruling that death penalty trial is too expensive

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The state and a prosecutor are appealing a ruling that a death penalty trial for a man accused of killing a college student would be too expensive.

Vinton County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey L. Simmons ruled Aug. 8 that prosecutors couldn't seek the death penalty for Gregory McKnight, who is charged with aggravated murder and kidnapping in the 2000 death of Kenyon College student Emily Murray.

Simmons said paying for McKnight's defense against the death penalty would deplete the $2.7 million general fund budget of the small county in southern Ohio.

"The court finds that the potential impact of financial considerations could compromise the defendant's due process rights in a capital murder trial. The court finds that this risk is unacceptable in this case," Judge Jeffrey L. Simmons wrote in his ruling.

On Wednesday, the state asked Simmons to reconsider his ruling.

Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery's office and local Prosecutor Timothy P. Gleeson also asked the 4th Ohio District Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling.

Simmons' ruling "usurps the state's rightful authority to prosecute this capital case and comes at an unacceptable cost to fair justice required by Ohio's citizens and the families of Emily Murray and Gregory Julious," Montgomery's office wrote in the appeal.

McKnight is charged with aggravated murder and kidnapping in the death of Murray, 20, a Kenyon College student from Cold Spring, N.Y., and with murder in the death of Julious, 20, of Chillicothe. Remains of the two were found on McKnight's property in December 2000.

Murray's case, which had carried the possibility of the death penalty, is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 23.

Vinton County, Ohio's most sparsely populated county, has about 12,800 people and its unemployment rate is usually double the state average.

Robert A. Miller, an attorney for McKnight, declined to comment, saying he had not seen the court filings.

Earlier, lawyers for McKnight told the Columbus Dispatch that mounting an adequate defense would cost more than $75,000, including public defenders' fees and investigators.

There was no immediate comment from Gleeson on Sunday on the potential prosecution cost. His home telephone number is unlisted.

Greg Meyers, chief counsel for the death penalty division of the state public defender's office, said after Simmons' ruling that funding for adequate defense representation is an important consideration.

"Anybody at the death penalty end of the criminal justice system knows that money is a variable in death penalty calculus," said Meyers. "Nationally and in Ohio, it is not unusual for the financial concern to be a factor in whether the prosecutor decides to go for the death penalty or settle for a life sentence."

Ohio reinstated the death penalty in 1981.