Sheila McFarland's murder conviction and life sentence upheld by an all Black Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals panel, with Judge Melody Stewart dissenting, McFarland, who is Black, of whom received a life sentence without the possibility of parole from Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul after she called the White judge racist, Gaul thereafter promising revenge, and though McFarland did not do the killing and was never at the scene of the crime .....Judge Stewart said in her dissent that there is no evidence to support McFarland's convictions and life sentence....Community activist Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc. says McFarland's murder conviction and life sentence without the possibility of parole are "unjust."......The McFarland family says her appointed trial court attorney, Attorney Donald Butler, who is Black, was allegedly ineffective, though her appellate attorneys did not raise the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal in seeking to get her convictions and life sentence overturned on appeal.... By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Sheila McFarland

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals has upheld the aggravated murder and other convictions of Sheila McFarland, who Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul handed a life sentences without the possibility of parole after the Black woman called the White judge racist at the sentence hearing.

Gaul said during sentencing that McFardland would pay for her out bursts, and pay she did, particularly since she did not kill anyone, and her alleged involvement in the murder is murky at best, data show. 

Community activist Alfred Porter Jr, president of Black on Black Crime Inc., has been working to garner community support for McFarland and says the situation is "unjust."

Gaul handed McFarland an aggregate sentence of life without the possibility of parole after a Cuyahoga County  jury, in  February of 2017, found her guilty on two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated burglary, conspiracy, and kidnapping.

Two of the judges on the three judge appeals panel, Judge Larry Jones and Patricia Ann Blackmon, agreed with Gaul against McFarland, while a third judge, Melody Stewart, a Democratic candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, dissented. 

In her dissent Judge Stewart said that McFarland’s guilt is not based  on any sufficient evidence and that there is nothing in the record linking McFarland to the crimes she allegedly committed.

McFarland was convicted in a murder-for hire plot of drug informant Robert Williams, 63, who was Black and was gunned down at a Euclid, Ohio apartment complex in 2015.

McFarland, and her boyfriend, Eddie Brownlee, were both accused of hiring 21-year-old Ryan Motley, Raymond Motley and Rahee Young, to allegedly do the killing, and while the couple awaited trial on drug trafficking charges.

The Motley's and Young all pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and recieved life sentences from Gaul, though none of them pointed the finger at McFarland, and at least one of them testified at one point that she had nothing to do with the murder, prosecutors arguing she had brainwashed the young Black men.

Williams had purchased cocaine from McFarland and Brownlee on at least three occasions.

But McFarland could not be placed at the scene of the crime and while Brownlee, who never wielded a gun since he was in jail the entire time, is alleged to have told Motley by phone to rough-up Williams, he allegedly did not tell him to kill him.

McFarland really cannot be linked to anything but her naive love of Brownlee, Judge Stewart essentially said in her dissenting opinion.

Prosecutors say recorded jail house phone conversations convicted her, though defense counsel argued at trial that the prosecution presented no conclusive evidence of McFarland's guilt.

Her family members say Gaul allegedly manipulated jurors in favor of prosecutors, and from the bench at trial.

Judges Jones, Blackmon and Stewart are all Black and, along with Judge Anita Laster Mayes, who is also Black and Democratic like they are, make up a third of the 12-member court of appeals that serves Cuyahoga County, which includes the city of Cleveland, the most diverse appellate court in the state of Ohio.

Gaul is also a Democrat, and a controversial judge who was nearly disbarred or suspended when the late Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who died suddenly in 2010, led the seven- member all White and now all Republican high court of the state of Ohio, the court of which is now led by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, a former lieutenant governor.

McFarland's appointed trial court attorney Donald Butler, a Black Cleveland criminal defense attorney, was lazy and of little help, McFarland's family told Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, and was ineffective, though her appellate counsel, Paul Kuzmins and Jeffrey Gamso, failed to raise the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal, which, if supported by the appeals court panel, is a basis for overturning arbitrary convictions.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.