Innocence on Ohio's Death Row

                Ohio’s death penalty is an interesting topic. Ohio execution have been around for many years but ceased in 1976 as did the rest of America as it was ruled cruel and unusual punishment. It was re-examined and deemed not cruel and unusual years later around 1999. The first person to be executed in 1999 was a volunteer by the name of Wilford Berry. From 1999 until now there have been 52 executions and many more sentenced to death (deathpenaltyinfo.org). The numbers tell it all in Ohio, as we are the only state to have executions scheduled so far into the future (not even Texas does that!). Ohio is ranked among the top executions for death penalty states; the highest however are Virginia and Texas.

                Ohio has had 6 exonerations (proved innocent and released, all charges dropped) from death row. I think this number is astounding because these are the ones that we actually know, there may have been plenty more that have gone undetected by the system. The latest exoneration was Joe D’ Ambrosio who was convicted of a murder he did not commit in Cleveland. With the help of Father Neil Kookoothe he was able to get his voice heard and his innocence upheld. There will soon be exoneration in the case of Michael Kennan, who was a supposed accomplice in Joe’s case. Kennan has been freed and charges have been dropped all that a waits is an appeal that may be filed by the state.

                There is another possible case of wrongful conviction in the case of Tyrone Noling who was incarcerated for the murder of two people in their home. There has been no physical evidence that links him or any of his accomplices to the crime scene. The house was ransacked when the bodies were discovered by police, yet no fingerprints match Tyrone or his accomplices. There was also a cigarette butt found at the scene of the crime which is a pivotal piece of evidence in this case. Tyrone has recently been granted DNA testing on the cigarette butt in hopes it will reveal that he is not guilty. DNA testing is underway while Tyrone a waits the results; as he has already served fifteen years in prison. If the test come back that his DNA does not match it would be a positive win in his case and perhaps make him a free man.