Shawn Ford

OHIO (USA): SUPREME COURT ORDERS REVIEW OF FORD’S DEATH SENTENCE IN 2013 SLEDGEHAMMER KILLINGS

November 12, 2019:

Ohio Supreme Court on 7 November 2019 threw out the death sentence of Shawn Ford Jr, 25, because of his low IQ. Ford was given the death penalty in 2015 for slaughtering Margaret and Jeffrey Schobert (his girlfriend’s parents, both White) in April 2013 at their home in Akron, Ohio. At Ford’s sentencing hearing, his attorneys argued that his low IQ should have prevented Judge Tom Parker from ordering him to be executed, but their argument was unsuccessful and Ford was sentenced to death. Ford will now be given a hearing to determine if his intellectual disability prohibits his execution after the Supreme court ruled 5-2 in his favor. Ford brutally attacked the Schoberts with a sledgehammer after they banned him from visiting their adoptive daughter, Chelsea, in the hospital. She had been hospitalized by a beating she’d received at the hands of Ford. Prosecutors said Ford stabbed and beat Chelsea 10 days before the murders after she refused to have sex with him at a party. Enraged that he could not see Chelsea, Ford enlisted the help of his 14-year-old cousin Jamal Vaughn to kill the Schoberts. Vaughn, who was later sentenced to life in prison, said he first did not believe Ford was serious about the killings, but testified: ‘He told me he was going to force me to do it.’