The Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals affirmed the opinion of a Trumbull County Pleas judge who dismissed the petition for postconviction relief for death row inmate David Martin. 

Martin, 40, was sentenced to death by Judge Andrew D. Logan in September 2014 after a jury found him guilty of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. 

He was convicted of the September 17, 2012 execution-style murder of Jeremy Cole, 21, during an attempted robbery in a Warren home. 

The attack also saw 30-year-old Melissa Putnam being shot in the head and has since recovered from her wounds. 

Martin was also convicted after being one of the three Trumbull County jail inmates responsible for taking a corrections officer hostage in April 2014 while he was awaiting trial.

In March 2022, Martin filed a petition asking Judge Logan to vacate his death sentence because of four alleged court errors in the trial and sentencing.

Martin's attorney also claimed at least two medical experts have determined he is intellectually disabled, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty. 

In December 2023, the judge dismissed his petition.

Martin then appealed to the 11th District Court, which resulted in the decision on Tuesday, January 21.

11th District Judge Mary Jane Trapp wrote the judgement of the Common Pleas court affirmed, stating the four errors were without merit. 

However, the appeals court took no position on the substantive merits of Martin's intellectual-disability claim. 

Trapp was joined in this decision by Judge Eugene A. Lucci.

However, 11th District Judge Matt Lynch presented a dissenting opinion on the case. 

Lynch wrote he would reverse the decision of the lower court on the grounds that "Martin satisfied the exception for untimely and/or successive postconviction petitions."

He continues, "Martin was unavoidably prevented, due to the ineffectiveness of trial counsel, from discovery of facts upon which it was necessary for him to rely in order to present his Atkins claim (intellectual-disability claim)."

Martin will remain on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.