Ohio Execution of Shawn Grate Delayed

Shawn Grate, Ohio

Updated: Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Shawn Grate was given an Ohio execution date of Wednesday, March 19, 2025, however, there are appeals ongoing in his case and his execution will not be carried out.  Forty-eight-year-old Shawn was sentenced to death for the murders of 43-year-old Stacey Stanley and 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith in Ashland Ohio.  Shawn was also convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting another woman.  He was later connected to several other rapes and murders.  For the last six years, Shawn has resided on Ohio’s death row.

Shawn struggled as he started school and was held back in kindergarten and first grade.   However, he had several friends and girls often liked him.  His parents divorced shortly before Shawn’s sixth birthday and when he was 11, his mother left her family in Ohio and began an affair with a man in Kentucky.  Shawn continued living with his father in Ohio and voiced his unhappiness with his mother’s affairs.  In high school, Shawn was an excellent baseball player, however, he stopped playing after breaking his arm.  Shawn graduated from high school, however, he already had a record for being violent against his girlfriend.  In 1996, Shawn was arrested, convicted, and served time for breaking into a house to steal money and jewelry.

Around 6 am on September 13, 2016, police received a phone call from a woman who claimed she was kidnapped and being held hostage in a house in Ashland, Ohio.  For the last three days, she had been sexually assaulted and tied up in the house.  She only managed to escape and call the police while the man who took her was sleeping.  Police arrived at the home, rescued the woman, and arrested Shawn Grate.

A search of the house and the property revealed the bodies of Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith.  Stacey, a/k/a Stacey Hicks, who went missing on September 8, 2016, had been strangled to death.  Elizabeth, who went missing on August 16, 2016, had also been strangled to death. 

Grate eventually confessed to police that he also killed Candice Cunningham, Rebekah Leicy, and Dana Lowrey.  Grate was able to direct the police to Candice’s body.  She was hidden in a home that had previously burned down.  She was killed in June 2016, after enduring three days of torture.  Rebekah’s body had been found in March of 2015 and her death was initially ruled a drug overdose.  The investigation into her death was reopened after Grate confessed to strangling her for stealing $4 from him.  Dana was an unidentified body – who was not positively identified until 2019 – was killed in 2006.  

Grate, who showed very little remorse, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Stacey and Elizabeth.  He was also charged convicted, and sentenced, for crimes against the rescued kidnapped woman.  Grate later pled guilty to the murders of Candice, Rebekah, and Dana.  He received a life sentence for each of those three murders.

Please pray for peace for the families of Stacey Stanley, Elizabeth Griffith, Candice Cunningham, Rebekah Leicy, and Dana Lowrey.  Please pray for healing for the unnamed victim.  Pray for strength for the family of Shawn Grate.  Pray that if Shawn is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for any other reason, evidence will be presented before his execution.  Please pray that Shawn finds peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.