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Brief to reject motion filed |
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Wednesday, 05 August 2009 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Staff Writer
Prosecuting attorneys in Mercer County Monday filed a brief with Ohio’s high court urging justices to reject requests 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 death 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.”
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, the 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.”
In April, Allen argued in front of judges from the 3rd 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 concerns the 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 killing the four men.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 August 2009 )
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