SUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio — A court hearing that could decide whether convicted police killer Ashford Thompson stays on Ohio's death row concluded on Monday, November 9, in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, after closing arguments in his legal bid to have the death penalty removed from his sentence. Thompson was sentenced to death in 2010 for the fatal shooting of Twinsburg Police Officer Joshua Miktarian during a traffic stop in July 2008, WNIR reported.
Source: WNIR 100 FM, Nov. 9, 2026
The hearing does not challenge Thompson's murder conviction itself. The Ohio Public Defender, which represents him, claims Thompson had a mental defect at the time of the shooting and is asking the court to remove the death penalty from his sentence — a question the judge will now decide on a written timetable that stretches into next summer.
What happened in court this week
The hearing began last Wednesday, November 4. One psychologist testified on Wednesday, and additional psychologists testified on Thursday, according to WOIO Cleveland 19, which reported the hearing was expected to conclude on Monday. On Monday, lawyers delivered closing arguments, bringing the evidence to an end, WNIR reported.
Source: WOIO Cleveland 19, updated Nov. 9, 2026
No decision was made from the bench on Monday. Instead, Thompson's attorneys and the prosecution will now file written briefs setting out their positions, and the last brief is not due until July 2027. Only after that filing deadline will the judge make a decision, WNIR reported — meaning the answer to whether Thompson's death sentence stands is still months away.
The 2008 traffic stop that led to death row
Officer Joshua Miktarian, 33, was shot in the head four times while making a traffic stop at Route 91 and Glenwood Drive in Twinsburg on July 13, 2008, WOIO reported. According to the Ohio Supreme Court's account of the case, Miktarian had stopped the car Thompson was driving because Thompson was loudly playing music, and the officer suspected he may have been drunk. When Miktarian was handcuffing Thompson to place him under arrest, the two struggled; Thompson, who held a permit to carry a concealed weapon, pulled his gun during the arrest and shot the officer four times in the head.
Source: Court News Ohio / Ohio Supreme Court, State v. Thompson
A jury convicted Thompson in 2010 of aggravated murder, together with escape, resisting arrest, tampering with evidence and carrying a concealed weapon. The jury recommended a sentence of death, and the court imposed it. On his direct appeal, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously affirmed his convictions in 2014, but split 4–3 on whether the death sentence was appropriate — a closeness that has kept the sentence contested ever since.
Source: Court News Ohio, Oct. 29, 2014 ruling summary
Joshua Miktarian is the only Twinsburg police officer to die in the line of duty. Every year on the anniversary of his death, police officers from across Northeast Ohio gather at the intersection where he was shot to remember him, WNIR reported.
Why a mental-defect claim is heard this way
Claims that a condemned prisoner was not fully responsible for his actions because of a mental defect are decided on expert evidence, which is why this hearing turned on psychologists rather than on the facts of the 2008 stop itself. The defence called psychologists to support its claim; the prosecution had the chance to test that evidence in court before closing arguments. The judge's eventual ruling will decide only the sentence question before the court — whether the death penalty stays or is removed — on the record built this week and in the briefs still to come.
What happens next
Both sides will file briefs over the coming months, with the last brief due in July 2027, and the Summit County judge will decide after that deadline whether Thompson's death sentence is removed. Until the judge rules, Thompson remains under the death sentence imposed in 2010. Awaaz Punjab will report the decision when it is issued.