The only woman on death row in Ohio will remain there after a federal court denied her appeal.

The U.S. Northern Ohio District Court reviewed 15 grounds for relief listed in her appeal, found them to lack merit and denied the habeas corpus motion questioning the constitutionality of her sentence and death sentence.

Roberts could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins will have reaction to the decision Wednesday.

Background

Donna Roberts, 79, was convicted of conspiring with her lover to murder her husband Robert Fingerhut in 2001 and collect his more than $500,000 life insurance proceeds.

According to court records, Roberts was having an affair with prison inmate Nathaniel Jackson before he was sent to prison for a separate offense.

Police-monitored phone calls and letters exchanged between Roberts and Jackson showed that they planned to murder Fingerhut.

Jackson was released from prison on December 9, 2001, Roberts was waiting to pick him up. Two days later, Fingerhut was found dead on the kitchen floor of his Howland Township home.

Along with the letters and phone records, investigators said Roberts bought a mask and gloves while committing the crime and even allowed him into the home where the murder occurred.

Donna Roberts was convicted and sentenced to death following her 2003 trial.

In 2006, justices sent her case back to Trumbull County Court but she was resentenced to death. Another appeal was filed shortly after.

The Ohio Supreme Court vacated Roberts' death sentence in May 2013, but her death sentence was affirmed in April 2014. The Ohio Supreme Court denied Roberts' move for reconsideration in 2017 and denied a writ of certiorari in February 2018.

In 2017, after the Ohio Supreme Court upheld her death sentence, an execution date was set for August 12, 2020. However, Roberts was granted a stay of execution in June 2020.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in June 2020 that carrying out her execution would be placed on hold until all state postconviction proceedings, including any appeals are exhausted.

The most recent execution in Ohio was on July 18, 2018, when Robert Van Hook was executed by lethal injection.