The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the death penalty ruling for James Worley.
File photo
The Ohio Supreme Court Thursday affirmed the death penalty imposed on James Worley for the 2016 murder of 20-year-old Sierah Joughin.
In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court rejected Worley’s appeal of the murder conviction and sentence for the death of Joughin, including his contention that jury selection in Fulton County and the trial itself was tainted by revelations of a similar attack of a woman by him in 1990.
The Supreme Court also rejected Worley’s other legal claims contesting his conviction and sentence.
Writing for the Court, Justice Michael P. Donnelly stated that Worley’s murder of Joughin was not a crime of impulse. He wrote that Worley had spent significant time, including on the day of the offense, watching pornographic videos showing young women being bound and strangled, and that Worley was resolved to murder Joughin to escape detection for kidnapping her.
More details to come.
