As reported in this FoxNews piece, the Governor of Ohio commuted yet another death sentence today. Here are some details explaining why (with an emphasis on a final fact in the article):
Ohio Gov. John Kasich Monday spared a condemned killer who was set to die April 11 for fatally shooting a woman more than three decades ago during a robbery after questions were raised about discrepancies in the case and the fairness of the trial.
The Republican governor's release said his decision followed the report and recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board, which voted 6-4 on March 16 in favor of clemency for death row inmate William Montgomery. Kasich had no additional comment, his spokesman Jon Keeling said.
Montgomery was sentenced to die for the 1986 shooting of Debra Ogle during a robbery in the Toledo area. In its ruling, the parole board concluded that commuting Montgomery's sentence to life without the possibility of parole was warranted, which is what Kasich did....
The board majority noted that two jurors said after the trial they had difficulty understanding the law, and one juror was permitted to remain on the jury despite exhibiting "troubling behavior and verbalizations" that raised questions over fitness. The majority also cited concerns that a police report in which witnesses said they saw Ogle alive four days after Montgomery is alleged to have killed her was never presented to the defense.
A federal judge and a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Montgomery deserved a new trial based in part on the missing report. But the full 6th Circuit rejected that argument. The witnesses later said they mistook Ogle's sister for the missing woman.
"The failure to disclose that report coupled with the issues described above relative to Montgomery's jurors raise a substantial question as to whether Montgomery's death sentence was imposed through the kind of just and credible process that a punishment of this magnitude requires," the parole board said on March 16....
Since taking office, Kasich has allowed 13 executions to proceed and has now spared six inmates.
The 21-page Ohio Parole Board recommendation for clemency is available at this link.
This capital commutation, as noted in the article, is the sixth granted by Gov Kasich. That now exceeds the number of capital commutations by his predecessor, Ted Strickland, though Gov Strickland's did five capital clemency grants in a single term while Gov Kasich has needed two terms to get best Strickland's number. And I believe Ohio Gov Richard Celeste still hold the state's modern record as he commuted eight death sentences as he was leaving office in 1991.
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