The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear the case of death-row inmate Jay Scott of Cuyahoga County, putting an end to his appeals, said a spokesman for Attorney General Betty Montgomery.
Scott, convicted of aggravated murder and other crimes in the May 6, 1983, slaying of a delicatessan employee, has exhausted his state and federal appeals. That clears the way for the Ohio Supreme Court to set an execution date, said Montgomery spokesman Joe Case.
Only one inmate has been executed since Ohio restored its death penalty in 1981. In February of 1999, Wilford Berry of Cleveland was put to death by lethal injection in the slaying of his boss. Berry, known to prosecutors as 'The Volunteer,'' refused to pursue his appeals and asked to be put to death.
Case said Scott is the only inmate on death row who has exhausted all his appeals.