Cincinnati Jury Convicts Anthony Kirkland of Capital Murder in the Deaths of Esme Kenney, 13, and Casonya Crawford, 14
Kirkland had pleaded guilty on the first morning of trial to murdering two women. The verdict made him eligible for the death penalty, which the jury later recommended.
Published
Anthony Kirkland was caught in 2009 near where a 13-year-old jogger died, carrying her iPod. On March 12, 2010, a Cincinnati jury convicted him of killing her and a 14-year-old girl.
The Hamilton County jury found Kirkland guilty on all remaining counts, including aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications, in the deaths of Esme Kenney, who was killed while jogging in March 2009, and Casonya Crawford, who was killed on her way home from a friend's house in May 2006. On the first morning of trial, he had pleaded guilty to murdering Mary Jo Newton, 45, and Kimya Rolison, 27. The jury saw videotapes of three police interviews with Kirkland. In the penalty phase on March 16, he read an unsworn statement. "I don't blame you if you kill me, I don't deserve to live, but please spare my life," he told jurors, who could choose life without parole or death.
The jury recommended death, and the court sentenced Kirkland to death for the murders of Esme and Casonya and to 70 years to life for the other two. He had gone to prison in 1987 for killing Leola Douglas. In 2014 the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the convictions and death sentence, though three justices would have ordered a new sentencing hearing over the prosecutor's closing remarks. In August 2018, a new jury again recommended death.
A 2018 radio report said the Ohio Supreme Court had vacated Kirkland's original death sentence, while the court's own 2014 news service reported that it upheld that sentence.
Sources
- State v. Kirkland, 140 Ohio St.3d 73, 2014-Ohio-1966, Supreme Court of Ohio
- Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty Appeal of Hamilton County Man in Murders of Two Women and Two Girls, Court News Ohio (Supreme Court of Ohio Office of Public Information)
- Kirkland asks jury: "Please spare my life", FOX19
- Jury Recommends Death For Convicted Killer Anthony Kirkland, 700WLW (iHeart)
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- March 8, 2009: Cincinnati Police Arrest Sex Offender Anthony Kirkland After a Missing 13-Year-Old Jogger, Esme Kenney, Is Found Dead