LEBANON — Warren County prosecutors have asked a higher court to intervene in their push to send twice-convicted killer Timothy Hancock to Death Row.

        Saying Judge Neal Bronson didn't carry out his legal duty and overstepped his authority, prosecutors want the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals to reverse the life sentence Mr. Hancock received for strangling his cellmate at Warren Correctional Institution (WCI) last year.

        Prosecutors claim Judge Bronson erred when he failed to conduct a required review of the case and instead threw out the jury's death recommendation after discovering that jurors viewed potentially prejudicial evidence during their sentencing deliberations.

        The judge said he feared that the items — pictures of the dead victim Jason Wagner, audiotapes of Mr. Hancock's statements to police and the ligatures used to commit the crime — swayed the jury's decision in favor of death.

        Prosecutors have asked the higher court to force Judge Bronson to complete the review and resentence Mr. Hancock, or to bar Judge Bronson from filing a sentencing entry. In fact, the judge filed the entry on Wednesday.

        In addition, Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Sievers said Judge Bronson did not have the legal authority to decide whether jurors erred in sentencing because that job belongs to Ohio's appellate courts and Supreme Court.

        The same jury that recommended death had convicted Mr. Hancock Dec. 4 of aggravated murder in the death of Mr. Wagner, a high-profile inmate convicted in the 1999 abduction, rape and attempted murder of a 3-year-old Lancaster girl.

        Mr. Hancock's lawyers had raised an insanity defense, saying their client was diagnosed with various mental illnesses while in prison and was being treated for psychosis at the time of the Nov. 13, 2000, killing.

        Mr. Hancock, 32, said he strangled Mr. Wagner, 25, after Mr. Wagner bragged about the 1999 crime and made a sexual overture.

        Prison officials admitted to the Enquirer after the trial that they violated state corrections policy when they placed the men together without first reviewing Mr. Hancock's mental health records to see if he could be safely double-celled. WCI Warden Anthony Brigano has denied any responsibility in Mr. Wagner's death.

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