Bio

Jerome Henderson was born on January 29, 1959. Judicial history shows he spent his early adulthood living in southwestern Ohio. By the mid-1980s, Henderson was residing in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived in an apartment complex located on Highland Avenue in the Mount Auburn neighborhood.

Prior to the spring of 1985, Henderson worked and lived quietly as an ordinary citizen, maintaining a low profile among his neighbors. He resided in the same residential building as his eventual victim, Mary Acoff. At the time, his daily routine and interactions did not explicitly raise suspicion within the local community, leaving no outward warning signs of the severe physical violence that would transpire in March 1985.

Murder Story

On March 3, 1985, Jerome Henderson forced entry into the basement-level apartment of his 26-year-old neighbor, Mary Acoff, at 1944 Highland Avenue in Cincinnati. Upon entering the residence, Henderson confronted Acoff and subjected her to a violent physical assault, which included an attempted rape. Acoff resisted her attacker, leading to a severe struggle inside the apartment. Henderson beat the victim repeatedly in the head, chest, and neck, and used a knife to slash her throat at least 13 times. 

Acoff's nude body was discovered later that day by her 10-year-old daughter upon returning home from school.The Cincinnati Police Department launched an immediate investigation and executed a search warrant at Henderson's nearby apartment three days after the homicide. Investigators recovered a blood-stained pair of shoes that matched prints left at the crime scene, along with a coat that featured significant biological stains. 

Henderson was arrested and booked into the Hamilton County Jail on charges of aggravated burglary, rape, and aggravated murder.During the July 1985 trial in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, forensic experts testified using the standard serology technology available at the time. Tests showed that the blood on Henderson's jacket matched Acoff’s blood type. However, testing on the semen recovered from the victim's body was inconclusive, as doctors could only narrow the source down to either Henderson or Acoff’s boyfriend. 

Based on this ambiguity, the jury acquitted Henderson of the formal rape charge but found him guilty of attempted rape, aggravated burglary, and aggravated murder. On August 5, 1985, the court accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Henderson to death.Henderson maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration, frequently requesting advanced DNA testing as forensic science evolved. In 2003, during his federal appeals process, a judge ordered DNA testing on the preserved evidence. 

The results revealed that while the semen found inside the victim's body belonged to her boyfriend, the semen found on Henderson's confiscated coat belonged directly to Henderson, and the blood on that same coat was an absolute match to Mary Acoff.Though his execution has been scheduled multiple times over four decades, Ohio's ongoing administrative difficulties in securing lethal injection drugs have resulted in consecutive reprieves. 

Governor Mike DeWine officially issued a reprieve on April 17, 2026, moving Henderson's scheduled execution date from October 2026 to September 18, 2029. He remains incarcerated on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.