Ashland County judge rejects convicted killer Shawn Grate's bid for new trial

A judge has denied convicted killer Shawn Grate's bid for a new trial.

Ashland County Common Pleas Judge Ronald P. Forsthoefel rejected Grate’s post-conviction petition, according to a news release from the Ashland County Prosecutor's Office.

Grate, who murdered at least five women in three Ohio counties, was convicted in 2018 of killing Stacey Stanley, 43, and Elizabeth Griffith, 29, both of Ashland, after a jury trial in Ashland County in 2018. The jury recommended the death penalty, and Forsthoefel agreed. Grate is scheduled to be put to death in 2025.

Ashland County Prosecuting Attorney Christopher R. Tunnell explained in the release that a post-conviction petition is a request by a defendant to set aside the jury’s verdicts and order a new trial. It is a common appeal in capital cases, Tunnell said.

More: Ashland's Claremont Avenue Bridge replacement completion delayed until end of September

Grate is being represented by the Ohio Public Defender’s Office, which filed the petition on his behalf, according to the release. The Public Defender’s Office argued there were errors committed by Grate’s defense team in the presentation of psychological evidence among other issues.

Attorney General Dave Yost’s Office aiding with appeals, filings in the case

The Ashland County Prosecutor’s Office is being aided in the appeals and post-conviction filings in the case by Attorney General Dave Yost’s Office.

The response to the post-conviction petition was filed by Stephen Maher, senior assistant Ohio attorney general of the Attorney General’s Capital Crimes Unit.

Forsthoefel denied the petition without a hearing on Tuesday, July 19.

Tunnell expects that the Ohio Public Defender’s Office will appeal Forsthoefel’s decision with the 5th District Court of Appeals based in Canton.

“The name of the game in capital litigation is to exhaust all state remedies so that they can find a sympathetic ear in the federal courts," Tunnell said in the release. "A federal court won’t hear an appeal of this sort until they have done everything possible in state court to get their verdict overturned. Shawn Grate’s prior appeals to the Ohio Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court were unsuccessful."

The Ohio Supreme Court upheld Grate's convictions and death sentence for the Ashland killings in 2020, according to prior reports.

Grate was also convicted of killing two women in Richland County: Candice Cunningham, 29, and Rebekah Leicy, 31, both by strangulation, and was given a life sentence last year for the 2006 murder of Dana Nicole Lowrey in Marion County.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Shawn Grate denied post-conviction relief