BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON - James Hanna, convicted of fatally stabbing his prison cell mate in the head with the sharpened end of a paint brush, was given the death sentence Friday by a Warren County judge.
It was the first death sentence handed down in Warren County since 1907.
Mr. Hanna declined to address Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson before the sentence and showed no emotion afterward.
Gladys Shumate, the mother of murder victim Peter Copas, said she was glad Mr. Hanna was given the death penalty.
"He got what was coming to him," said Mrs. Shumate, who lives in Columbus. "He put me through hell the past two weeks." She referred to the time since Mr. Hanna's conviction when she heard graphic details about her son's death.
Mr. Hanna was found guilty on Nov. 9 of aggravated murder in the August 1997 slaying of Mr. Copas at the Lebanon Correctional Institute. As Mr. Copas, 43, slept in his cell, Mr. Hanna plunged a wooden paint brush handle 5 inches into his head through his eye. He then beat him repeatedly with a lock wrapped in a sock.
Mr. Hanna had fought with Mr. Copas and told authorities that Mr. Copas and his friends had threatened him, according to trial testimony.
Mr. Copas, who was to be released from prison in a year, died three weeks after the attack.
Mr. Hanna's defense lawyers argued that the death penalty was not justified because Mr. Copas could have died because of negligent medical care. They also said Mr. Hanna had a history of personality disorders and a physically abusive upbringing.
But Judge Bronson ruled the circumstances of Mr. Copas' murder and Mr. Hanna's 1978 convictions of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder outweighed those arguments.
Mr. Hanna had been serving two life sentences for those previous convictions. In Toledo, Mr. Hanna fatally stabbed a store clerk 33 times and then stabbed a witness who walked in on the murder. The witness survived.
The judge set Mr. Hanna's execution date for March 31, 1999, but there will be an automatic appeal of the death sentence. The appeal process usually lasts more than 10 years.
Because Mr. Hanna can't afford an attorney, the court will appoint an attorney from the Public Defender's Office to handle his appeal. Mrs. Shumate was dismayed to learn the appeals process could delay the execution more than 10 years.
"I'll be dead by then," said Mrs. Shumate, 77.
She said that because her son was attacked while he slept, she often has a difficult time sleeping.
"I can't sleep at night," Mrs. Shumate said. "If I hear any noise, I wake up."
