State of Ohio v. Derrick Jamison

When Justice Went to Hell in Cincinnati, Ohio a criminal defense lawyer unsuccessfully represented Derrick Jamison who was Charged with first-degree murder.



On August 1, 1984, Gary Mitchell was alone, tending bar at the Central Bar. The Central Bar, located near downtown Cincinnati, had been owned by Mitchell's family for forty years. When two patrons came into the bar, around 2:00 p.m., they found the bar empty and Mitchell unconscious, lying face down behind the bar. The cash register was open and empty. One patron called the police and an ambulance.



Soon thereafter the police and an ambulance arrived. When the ambulance crew carried Mitchell out, he had a large bruise on the side of his head. Upon arrival at the hospital, Mitchell was found nearly brain dead by treating physicians. Eight days later, Mitchell died from multiple brain bruises and bleeding caused by a traumatic blunt injury.



Cincinnati police found few clues to solve this crime. They did find a gym shoe print on the top of the bar. After photographing the print, they lifted an impression of it, discovering it was made by a Pony gym shoe. One bystander described two males that he saw running from the area of the bar at approximately the time of the crime as being in their mid-twenties, one, 6'2" to 6'4," weighing approximately two hundred pounds, and the other, shorter, 5'3" to 5'9".



Police investigated other robberies similar in pattern to the Central Bar homicide. Two earlier robbery victims had suffered severe head injuries, requiring extensive hospitalization. After the Central Bar homicide, other similar robberies continued to occur.



On October 12, 1984, the police, after being alerted by an automatic alarm, arrested appellant, Derrick Jamison, shortly after he had robbed a Gold Star Chili restaurant. A hidden automatic camera photographed appellant when he robbed Gold Star Chili. Appellant was arrested and taken into custody. Police found on his person marked money from Gold Star Chili, jewelry from another robbery, and a gun taken from a third robbery. In addition, appellant was wearing Pony gym shoes, the soles of which were similar to the shoe print found at the Central Bar two and one-half months earlier. Appellant, 6'3" tall, twenty-three years old, and weighing one hundred seventy pounds, fit the earlier general description of one of the suspects running from the Central Bar on August 1, 1984. Appellant, while being a suspect, was not charged with the Central Bar incident at that time since he could not be positively identified. Police continued their investigation.



In January 1985, police apprehended Charles Howell, appellant's accomplice in the Central Bar homicide. Police discovered Howell through a Crime Stopper tip. Howell told police he and appellant were playing basketball at about noon on August 1st and on the spur of the moment, they decided to rob the Central Bar. Howell acted as the lookout. It was appellant who attacked the bartender. Appellant took the cash from the register, later giving Howell $80. Howell agreed to testify against appellant and pled guilty to aggravated robbery. Howell testified before a grand jury, which indicted appellant for aggravated robbery and the felony murder of Gary Mitchell.

On October 12, 1985, a jury found appellant guilty as charged in the indictment. Count One, aggravated murder, in violation of R.C. 2903.01, alleged murder committed during, or while fleeing from, an aggravated robbery and that defendant was the principal offender in the aggravated robbery. Count Two alleged aggravated robbery, in violation of R.C. 2911.01, and that defendant had a prior 1979 robbery conviction. The judge dismissed a firearms specification because there was no supporting evidence. Following the jury's death penalty recommendation, the trial judge sentenced appellant to death on Count One. On Count Two, he sentenced appellant to a consecutive fifteen to twenty-five-year prison term. The court of appeals affirmed the convictions and sentence.



On May 20, 2000, Jamison’s attorney filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The Court granted the writ and ordered a new trial on the ground that suppressing exculpatory evidence denied Jamison a fair trial, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed that ruling on May 23, 2002.



The district attorney decided not to retry the case, and on February 28, 2005, the Ohio Court of Common Pleas dismissed the charges against Jamison. He was removed from death row and was released from prison on October 25, 2005.



During his 20 years in prison, Jamison survived six death warrants and once came within 90 minutes of execution.