The only woman on Ohio’s Death Row has seen her latest appeal for post-conviction relief fail.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday announced it has declined to review the decision by Ohio’s 11th District Court of Appeals that upheld the conviction and death sentence of Donna Roberts. The Howland woman was charged in the 2001 murder of her husband, Robert Fingerhut, at the couple’s Fonderlac Drive home.

Roberts, 76, was convicted along with her boyfriend Nathaniel Jackson, who shot Fingerhut to death on Dec. 11, 2001.

Roberts had filed an appeal saying she had ineffective counsel at her jury trial and was not granted an evidence hearing during the appeals process. In August 2020, the 11th District court disagreed, with Judge Matt Lynch writing Roberts’ arguments had no merit. The high court decided this week not to review that appellate decision.

A previous appeal by Roberts failed when the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20, 2018, decided to not review the case.

Three other times, Ohio’s high court had dealt with Roberts’ case.

In October 2013, the high court sent the case back to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for resentencing on charges of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. It was the second time the Ohio Supreme Court had vacated Roberts’ death sentence. In the spring of 2014, Trumbull Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice, who was appointed to the case after the retirement and subsequent death of Judge John Stuard in 2013, resentenced Roberts to death.

The Ohio court also refused to consider a Sixth Amendment (due process) argument for Roberts.

Roberts’ attorney David Doughten said he was disappointed but not surprised by the ruling.

“We just learned of the decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio not to accept jurisdiction of her case,” Doughten said. “The (high) court accepts very few cases for review on an appeal from the denial of a post-conviction petition, particularly in a capital appeal. We have no had time to speak to Donna about this, but will arrange to do so soon.”

Doughten said this step exhausts Roberts’ available state appeals.

“Her next step is to pursue relief in the Northern District of Ohio federal court in Cleveland by filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus” to determine if her imprisonment or detention is lawful, Doughten said — noting Roberts has one year from this Ohio high court decision to file her petition.

Roberts’ execution also remains on hold, as are all others in Ohio because Gov. Mike DeWine declared a death penalty moratorium for 2021 due to the controversy over lethal injections and the lack of the state finding an appropriate drug for the executions.

The state had originally scheduled Roberts to die on Aug. 12, 2020, but the court had stayed that date. In the meantime, Roberts remains incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

Jackson, 48, who was convicted of shooting Fingerhut just two days after being released from prison, also remains on Death Row at the Chillicothe prison, without a scheduled execution date.

Prosecutors had said Roberts wanted to collect $500,000 insurance money because of her husband’s death.

On Dec. 11, 2001, Robert Fingerhut was found dead on the kitchen floor of his home. He had been shot several times.

gvogrin@tribtoday.com