NEWS

Key decisions in the Ray Tensing retrial

Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Leslie Ghiz listens to Jack Greiner, attorney with Graydon Head, representing the Cincinnati Enquirer and several other outlets, during a hearing to determine media access during the second Ray Tensing trial. Tensing is charged with murder in the July 19, 2015 shooting of Sam DuBose. Tensing was a University of Cincinnati police officer at the time. The first trial ended in a hung jury.

The second Ray Tensing trial ended in a mistrial. Here are a few of the key decisions along the way.

  • Judge Megan Shanahan, who presided over the first trial, disqualified herself from presiding over the retrial saying the retrial needed a clean slate. After two other judges, Beth Myers and Thomas Heekin, recused themselves, Leslie Ghiz was selected. 
  • Prosecutor Joe Deters decides to retry University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing for murder and voluntary manslaughter, as opposed to lesser charges.  
  • Judge Ghiz denied Deters' request for a change of venue.
  • Deters decided not to personally retry Tensing and instead handed the case to Assistant Prosecutors Seth Tieger and Stacey DeGraffenreid.
  • Judge Ghiz issued orders restricting media outlets covering the trial. The Enquirer and other media outlets sued Ghiz. After a hearing ordered by the First District Court of Appeals, Ghiz did allow a fixed-position video camera.
  • The T-shirt worn by Tensing the day he fatally shot Sam DuBose in 2015, emblazoned with a Confederate flag and seen by jurors in the first trial, was not permitted in the retrial. Ghiz deemed the shirt as too prejudicial. 
  • During cross-examination, prosecution witness Cincinnati Sgt. Shannon Heine said she thought Tensing was justified in shooting Sam DuBose. 
  • During closing arguments, the prosecution, in what was deemed a rare move, criticized Heine saying she asked Tensing “easy question after easy question” and never intended for him to face charges.
  • In a sign that the prosecution may not have been confident that it could get a conviction on murder or voluntary manslaughter, it requested the jury consider a lesser charge of reckless homicide. Ghiz denied the request.