Mackenzie Shirilla files last-ditch habeas petition to overturn murder conviction

Convicted for the 2022 crash that killed boyfriend Dominic Russo and friend Davion Flanagan, Mackenzie Shirilla is seeking to have her murder conviction vacated through a habeas corpus petition filed by Marein & Bradley LLC. The petition asserts that the Sixth Amendment was violated because the pathologist from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office testified in place of the actual examiners who performed the autopsies.

Shirilla’s lawyers also argue that prosecutors did not establish the requisite reckless or purposeful intent and cite a diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome that might have caused her to lose consciousness. The filing missed the one-year deadline by a single day due to the leap year, and a Cuyahoga County judge had already ruled it invalid, a decision the Eighth Circuit upheld. Further appeals are pending before the Ohio Supreme Court and the Eighth District Court of Appeals, while her first parole hearing is scheduled for September 2037. Shirilla’s case has also been featured in a Netflix documentary titled “The Crash.”