Execution Ruling Won’t Be Executed

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Ohio to execute a killer--who was not sentenced to death.

Crago vs. Ohio (90-7095) apparently was presented to the justices as a death penalty case, but Martin Crago was asking the court to review a long sentence, not a death sentence.

Baffled court employees could not recall such a thing ever happening before. It was not immediately clear what happened, or what it would mean to Crago, who is in the medium-security Lebanon Correctional Facility serving consecutive sentences that add up to a minimum of 40 years.

“He will stay where he is as far as we’re concerned,” said Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokeswoman Mary Helen Van Dyke in Columbus.

Crago had asked the court to review whether he received a fair trial and proper sentence but they denied the requests to hear it and two other slaying cases. He was sentenced to 10 to 25 years for voluntary manslaughter, 10 to 25 years on each of two counts of aggravated robbery and 10 to 25 years for kidnaping.