COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has granted a motion to stay the execution of convicted East Cleveland serial killer Michael Madison.
The court wrote that "the stay shall remain in effect until exhaustion of all state postconviction proceedings, including any appeals." Madison had been scheduled for execution this May.
In June of 2016, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy R. McDonnell sentenced Madison to die by lethal injection for the aggravated murders of 38-year-old Angela Deskins, 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley and 18-year-old Shirellda Terry.
Madison was also sentenced to a total of 51 years in prison on multiple lesser counts of kidnapping, rape, having weapons under disability and gross abuse of a corpse -- 11 years for each of the kidnappings, 11 years to life for the rape, 3 years for the weapons charge and 1 year for each of the abuse of a corpse charges.
He was arrested in July 2013 after the bodies were found wrapped in garbage bags near his East Cleveland apartment. Investigators say Madison killed the trio over the course of nine months.
Madison, who confessed to choking a woman to death in October 2012, then leaving her in his apartment while he went out drinking, claimed he did not recall killing the two others. He added that he recalled waking up next to the dead body of one of the women, which he later put in a garage behind his home.
In 2020, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled the death penalty was appropriate for Madison. His attorney had raised 20 issues on appeal, claiming improper trial procedures denied Madison the right to receive a life sentence in prison. The court did reverse two kidnapping convictions that were part of Madison's 14-count indictment and two death penalty specifications based on those kidnappings.
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