State v. LaMar

{¶ 1} The appellant, Keith LaMar, was convicted of murdering five prison inmates during the infamous April 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (“SOCF”) in Lucasville. The trial court sentenced LaMar to death for four of these murders. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. Factual Background

{¶ 2} On the afternoon of April 11, 1993, a group of Muslim inmates seized control of cellblock “L” (“L-Block”) at SOCF. The rioting inmates took several guards hostage and locked inmates considered “snitches” into various cells in the L-6 section of L-Block. The Muslim inmates…