View the Ohio Supreme Court’s pronouncement.

The Ohio Supreme Court today granted triple murderer James Earl Trimble’s motion to delay his scheduled Sept. 29 execution date until all of his state appeals are exhausted.

Trimble, 48, is on death row in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

On Oct. 25, 2005, after the longest trial in Portage County history, a jury of seven men and five women convicted Trimble of three counts of aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Renee Bauer; her 7-year-old son, Dakota Bauer; and 22-year-old Kent State University student Sarah Positano in January of that year.

The Ohio Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision on June 30 of this year, denied Trimble’s direct appeal of his capital murder convictions and death sentence. That ruling rejected all 15 allegations outlined in Trimble’s appeal, including a Portage County judge’s decision not to move the trial from Ravenna.

Appellate attorneys also had argued that jurors might have been influenced by the display of Trimble’s firearms in the courtroom and jury room during deliberations. But the court rejected the claim and upheld the jury’s recommendation for the death penalty.

Last week, Trimble’s attorneys filed another appeal, setting in motion the process that led to today’s decision to indefinitely delay the execution date.

A July 7 filing with the Ohio Supreme Court notified the justices that Trimble will file a petition, called a Writ of Certiorari, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the lower-court decisions.

Ed Meyer

The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.