Howland Township woman’s death sentence, conviction to stand
A federal judge denied death row inmate Donna Roberts’ bid to overturn her conviction and death sentence for the 2001 slaying of her former husband, Robert Fingerhut, in Howland Township.
Roberts had filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. Northern Ohio District Court on Dec. 20, 2021, asserting fifteen grounds for relief. She later withdrew two of the grounds.
Why was Donna Roberts’ appeal denied?
In reviewing each of the grounds, Judge Dan Polster decided that none had any merit. The judge released his decision in a 120-page opinion.
“In assessing the merits of Roberts’ complaint, Judge Polster did a thorough job of analyzing each of the issues raised by the defense. We are pleased that he found no merit to any of the issues Roberts defense team raised, and the conviction and death sentence will stand,” said Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Chuck Morrow after reviewing the documents.
In 2003, Roberts, now age 79, was convicted by a jury of two aggravated murder charges with death penalty specifications plus separate charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary with gun specifications.
What was the evidence against Donna Roberts?
She was convicted of plotting and assisting her lover Nathaniel Jackson with the murder of her former husband Robert Fingerhut at his Fonderlac Drive home in December 2001 and collecting his more than $500,000 life insurance proceeds.
Authorities obtained evidence of the conspiracy through 18 jail phone calls and nearly 300 letters exchanged between Roberts and Jackson while he was in prison. Jackson was released from prison a few days before Fingerhut’s murder.
After several appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court remanded Roberts’s case to the trial court for resentencing because of procedural errors. The resentencing hearing occurred on Oct. 29, 2007, when the trial court reimposed the death penalty.
On May 7, 2013, the Ohio Supreme Court vacated Roberts’ death sentence again because the trial court failed to consider the defendant’s allocution. With a different judge presiding, the trial court again imposed Roberts’ death sentence on Apr. 30, 2014.
Roberts remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.
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