Death-row inmate gets new hearing

3/21/2001

COLUMBUS - Convicted murderer John W. Byrd, Jr., will get another chance to avoid execution.

The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday agreed to send his case back to Hamilton County Common Pleas Court for a hearing on a long-concealed co-conspirator's confession to the 1983 stabbing for which Byrd was convicted.

But while those proceedings take place, the court has started the clock ticking toward the Cincinnati man's execution. The court set a date of Sept. 12 at the request of Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery.

Byrd was sentenced to death for the stabbing of Cincinnati convenience store clerk Monte Tewksbury during a 1983 robbery. The affidavit, signed by convicted co-conspirator John Brewer, places Byrd at the robbery but the knife in Brewer's hand.

Meanwhile, Jay D. Scott, convicted of killing a Cleveland delicatessen owner 18 years ago, is scheduled to die by lethal injection or electrocution on April 17.