Kevin Keith

[thinkinkmesa]

More than 30 Former Judges and Prosecutors, 61 Innocence Projects and Legal Organizations, Over 100 Ohio Faith Leaders, Leading Eyewitness Experts, and Thousands of Supporters Call on Ohio Parole Board and Governor Strickland to Grant Clemency to Kevin Keith

Amid growing concern that the State of Ohio may be on the verge of executing an innocent man, prominent individuals from Ohio and across the country today called on the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith.

Mr. Keith is scheduled for execution on September 15, 2010, despite new overwhelming evidence of innocence that no court or jury has ever heard in its entirety. The new evidence shows that Mr. Keith was wrongfully convicted based on faulty and improperly influenced eyewitness identification. Additional new evidence identifies an alternative suspect who told a police informant that he was paid to carry out the crime for which Mr. Keith now stands to be executed.

Letters urging clemency were delivered to the Parole Board and the Governor today from over 30 former state and federal judges and prosecutors, the Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network (comprised of 61 innocence projects and legal organizations), over 100 Ohio faith leaders and organizations, 13 leading eyewitness and memory experts, law enforcement, and death row exonerees, among others.

In addition, two petitions, one with over 11,000 signatures and another with over 9,000 signatures from across Ohio and the United States, were delivered along with the letters.

Distinguished Ohioans supporting clemency include former Attorney General of Ohio Jim Petro; State Senator David Goodman (R – 3rd District); former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Herbert R. Brown; former United States Court of Appeals Judge for the Sixth Circuit, Nathaniel R. Jones; former Minority Leader of the Ohio Senate Ben Espy (D – 15th District); and members of the Ohio Public Defender Commission.

In his letter to the Governor, Sen. Goodman, sponsor of the bipartisan reform bill signed into law this year that mandates new requirements for eyewitness identification procedures, states: "The eyewitness identification procedures used in Mr. Keith's case are the very ones that we sought to correct in the reform package….The Legislature overwhelmingly passed the reforms because we recognized that the possibility of a wrongful conviction is real."

The main evidence used to wrongfully convict Mr. Keith was the unreliable eyewitness identification of the surviving adult victim who identified Mr. Keith after telling at least four witnesses he could not see the shooter's face because the shooter was wearing a mask. The victim then identified Mr. Keith out of a highly suggestive photo lineup where Mr. Keith's face appeared larger than the others. Another survivor, who knew Mr. Keith, specifically excluded his picture from the lineup.

The Ohio Innocence Project's letter to Governor Strickland states: "Witness memory is like any other evidence at a crime scene; it must be preserved carefully and retrieved methodically, or it can be contaminated. In Mr. Keith's case, methods were used that Ohio's own laws now recognize to be unreliable, directly resulting in the death sentence of a potentially innocent man."

Also in Columbus to deliver letters to the Parole Board and the Governor were Jennifer Thompson-Cannino of North Carolina, a rape survivor who wrongly identified her attacker, and Ohio death row exoneree Dale Johnston.

In his letter to the Governor, former Attorney General Jim Petro writes: "It is deeply troubling that the execution could go forward without any court or jury having had the entirety of the new evidence before it….To maintain public confidence in Ohio's justice system we must do everything in our power to ensure that claims of innocence are thoroughly vetted in our courts. But when our courts do not do so, it is the role of the executive branch to correct that error."

SOURCE Supporters of Kevin Keith
www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/more-than-30-former-judges-and-prosecutors-61-innocence-projects-and-legal-organizations-over-100-ohio-faith-leaders-leading-eyewitness-experts-and-thousands-of-supporters-call-on-ohio-parole-board-and-governor-strickland-to--100366684.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Judge H. Lee Sarokin
Retired in 1996 after 17 years on the federal bench

Are We About To Execute Yet Another Possibly Innocent Person?

Kevin Keith is scheduled to be executed in Ohio on September 15, 2010. Despite his claims that he was convicted based upon faulty eye-witness identification (the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the nation); that he had an alibi supported by four witnesses; and that there was no forensic evidence that conclusively connected him to the crime for which he was convicted, every court has rejected his claims and constant protestations of innocence since his conviction 16 years ago. He faces execution as a result.

New evidence has been unearthed since his conviction which suggests improper influence in Mr. Keith's identification by an adult survivor of the shooting in which three persons were killed, and one adult and two children were wounded. In the same respect, other eye-witness identifications appear to be flawed or tainted by improper influence and suggestion

Furthermore, information was developed that points to another suspect whose conduct and statements clearly appear to implicate him in the crime. A seven year old survivor of the shooting excluded Mr. Keith and identified someone else by name as the shooter---the brother of this other suspect. There is also contradictory evidence by a nurse regarding the alleged naming of Mr. Keith by the adult survivor of the shooting, who told at least four persons that he did not know who the shooter was. The other facts supporting Mr. Keith's claim are too numerous to set forth here, but they are equally compelling.

In considering these cases, I am willing to recognize that many guilty persons claim that they are innocent; that both the judicial system and the family of victims need and are entitled to closure; and that procedural rules are necessary for such closure and to avoid repetitive and endless petitions for relief. However, there are those cases with growing frequency that cry out for a fresh look, a relaxation, if necessary, of the rules, where the choice is between executing a possibly innocent man or giving him the opportunity to establish his wrongful conviction and actual innocence. This may very well be such a case. To grant him the relief which he seeks is to render justice; to execute him at this juncture without more--- is to deny it.

Disclosure: I have joined in a petition to grant clemency for Kevin Keith with thirty-one other former judges and prosecutors filed today with Governor Strickland and the Ohio Parole Board.
www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/10deathrow.html?ref=us.

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio challenges condemned inmate's innocence claim

Ohio is challenging a key element of a death row inmate's claim that he is innocent of killing three people in a 1994 shooting that also wounded three others.

The state says an emergency room nurse is standing by information she gave police to help identify Kevin Keith immediately after the shooting in Bucyrus (byoo-SY'-ruhs) in northern Ohio.

Amy Whisman Petryk says in a July 30 affidavit obtained by The Associated Press that she told police a surviving victim told her the man responsible was named Kevin.

In 2007, Petryk signed a document saying she did not pass the name on to police. The new affidavit says she signed that document hoping the case would go away.

The attorney general's office plans to introduce the new information Wednesday at Keith's clemency hearing.

More;
www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-challenges-condemned-inmates-innocence-claim-853786.html

[guest]

Death Row Inmate To Learn Fate After Hearing/video

www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/aug/10/condemned-die-top-state-officials-try-stop-it-ar-186775/

The next man scheduled to be executed in Ohio has become the focus of a national movement, with claims that he is innocent and that someone else has admitted that they are responsible for the killings Kevin Keith is charged with.

Innocence projects in Ohio and around the nation are fighting Keith's execution, but the governor's office said it may be a week or more before he gets a report from a clemency hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro spoke against the upcoming execution of Kevin Keith Tuesday at the Statehouse.

Petro was joined by several speakers from Ohio and U.S. innocence projects and from the Office of the Ohio Public Defender.

"We're requesting a full pardon for Mr. Keith. We believe there's enough evidence to show that he's innocent," said Rachel Troutman, Assistant State Public Defender.

Also at the news conference were Keith's brother and two men who spent years in prison for crimes for which they were later exonerated.

"These are the shoes that Kevin wore during the trial. These are the shoes of an innocent man. This is what I was able to scrounge up after Kevin was convicted. I said, 'I want the shoes because who wouldn't want to walk in these shoes. These are the shoes of an innocent man," said Charles Keith.

"There's so many things in his case that was done in my case. There's no factual evidence against Keith. I mean if you're going to execute someone, you gotta have a real smoking gun," said Dale Johnson, who spent five years on death row. "I always tell people that we got one of the best justice systems in the world. However it's only as good as the people we entrust it to make it work. Some people should not be given that trust."

If the effort doesn't work and Keith is executed next month, "We would be very confident that Kevin would go to heaven. I can't say so much for those prosecutors where they may end up at or some of those police officers. I mean, they have a judgment day also," Charles said.

[thinkinkmesa]

Audio/Another Ohio Death Penalty Case stirs clemency appeal

The issue on PRI’s national morning news program, “The Takeaway,” Tuesday morning. They paired Bob Driehaus with an Ohio Supreme Court Justice.

www.bobdriehaus.com/blog/?p=35

[thinkinkmesa]

Clemency hearing today for Bucyrus triple murderer Kevin Keith

A clemency hearing in a triple murder
case in Crawford County is scheduled for today.

The looming execution of convicted triple murderer
Kevin Keith is drawing national attention.

Keith, scheduled for a lethal injection Sept. 15, will
not attend his clemency hearing at 9 a.m. today in
Columbus. A decision in the clemency motion is not
expected before Aug. 18.

Keith's supporters, led by the Ohio Innocence
Project, have whipped up support across party lines
and triggered stories as far reaching as in Tuesday's
New York Times.

"Kevin Keith is innocent, and all the evidence
together will show that," said Keith's attorney,
Rachel Troutman of the Ohio Public Defender's
Office.

The defense team filed motions in late July for a new
trial, citing new evidence. Crawford County Assistant
Prosecutor Cliff Murphy said previously no new
evidence exists.

Keith will not get a new trial in Crawford County,
Judge Thomas Patrick Curran ruled Monday.

Now on Ohio's death row in Youngstown, Keith, 46,
was found guilty of the shooting deaths of two
women and a 4-year-old girl and wounding a man
and two children in February 1994. Prosecutors
said he sprayed gunfire through an apartment at
Bucyrus Estates to retaliate against a relative of some
of the victims, who cooperated with a drug
investigation.

The defense claims Keith is innocent, and their
arguments have swayed some influential politicians.

"I am gravely concerned that the state of Ohio may
be on the verge of executing an innocent person,"
Jim Petro wrote in a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland.
Petro, a Republican, has described himself as a
death penalty supporter.

Herbert R. Brown, a member of the Ohio Public
Defender Commission and a former Ohio Supreme
Court justice, wrote the governor as well.

"There is a mass of exculpatory evidence,
suppressed evidence, faulty eyewitness
identification and forensic reports that support
legitimate claims of innocence," Brown wrote.

The New York Times reported Strickland's
administration has overseen more executions
during the last two years than any state but Texas.

"I guess if the governor had to prove his
commitment to the death penalty, it's been done,"
said Richard C. Deiter, director of the Death Penalty
Information Center in Washington, D.C. "And
Governor Strickland knows that the death penalty is
not infallible."

Strickland's office said the governor rigorously
reviews clemency requests and has made no
decision in this case.

"The governor has already said that he finds some
of the circumstances in Mr. Keith's case troubling,"
said Amanda Wurst, Strickland's spokeswoman.

At issue

Meanwhile, the state plans to argue today that an
emergency room nurse is standing by information

she gave police to help identify Keith after the
shooting.

Amy Whisman Petryk wrote in a July 30 affidavit that
she told police a surviving victim told her the man
responsible was named Kevin.

As part of the defense's argument, Troutman claims
a nurse named John Foor at Grant Medical Center
treated Rick Warren, the lone adult who survived the
shooting. According to Troutman, Warren told at
least four people, including a police officer, that he
did not know who shot him and that the shooter
wore a mask.

In court, Warren testified a man named Kevin was
his attacker and identified Keith as the shooter. At
trial, Foor testified he called Bucyrus police around
5 a.m. to tell them Warren wrote down the name of
the shooter: Kevin. Troutman said police logs
indicate no call came in at 5 a.m. on the day in
question.

Also at issue is a shell casing recovered by Bucyrus
resident Farnella Graham in front of her residence.
Graham, now deceased, lived near General Electric,
where Keith said he picked up his girlfriend from
work at 11 p.m., more than two hours after the
shootings.

According to Troutman, newly discovered police
logs indicate the bullet casing is an issue. The log
reads, "1221 S. Walnut. Woman found casing.
Thinks she may have picked it up in the McDonald's
area."

Murphy said trial transcripts show Graham and
Bucyrus police Officer John Seif testified the shell
casing was found in front of her home, across from
General Electric. Her daughter, both said, made the
call to police.

Troutman's brief claims Keith's new evidence
includes radio logs from the Bucyrus Police
Department that were not disclosed until this year
during a civil lawsuit Massillon resident Edwin
Davila filed against the city for destroying records
from 16 years ago. Davila, who has sued other Ohio
cities over the same matter, recently won a $1.4
million judgment against Bucyrus.

"There is an individual on death row who could
have benefited from the existence of these public
records, and so far he has not been able to receive a
new trial," Davila said. "Hopefully, this decision will
also help him."

Bucyrus police Chief Ken Teets, who was a
patrolman at the time the murders took place, said
he is confident all records were turned over to the
defense in 1994.

More;
www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/article/20100811/NEWS01/8110303/1002/Kevin-Keith-clemency-hearing-is-today

[guest]

A lawyer for a condemned Ohio inmate scheduled to die next month says the state could execute an innocent man for an unsolved crime.

Attorney John Lewis told the Ohio Parole Board Wednesday that the case against Kevin Keith is not a referendum against the death penalty and is not about politics.

Lewis says there's strong evidence of an alternate suspect and numerous problems with the identification of Keith as the person responsible for a triple killing.

Keith is asking not just for clemency but for a full pardon, a relatively rare request to the board by a death row inmate.

Three people including a 4-year-old girl, died in the February 1994 shooting at an apartment in Bucyrus (byoo-SY'-ruhs), about 65 miles north of Columbus.

www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-killer-of-3-claims-innocence-asks-for-mercy-853786.html

[guest]

The Ohio Parole Board is now considering the fate of a death row inmate who many people think might be innocent. Much attention has been given to Kevin Keith, a man whose case has been taken up by the Innocence Porject, a group that's been responsible for reversing convictions of some death row inmates in the past. But the state is not convinced Keith is innocent so it's pressing forward with plans to execute him next month. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles has details on the controversy.

More;
www.wksu.org/news/story/26037

[thinkinkmesa]

Death Row Inmate Has Clemency Hearing

www.onntv.com/live/content/onnnews/stories/2010/08/11/story_keith_clemency_hearing.html?sid=102

(Also has a death penalty poll on the page.)

[thinkinkmesa]

Kevin Keith clemency hearing lasts 12 hours
Corrections board grants extra time for controversial case

Kevin Keith's marathon 12-hour clemency hearing Wednesday may have set a duration record. It also gave his supporters one of their last chances to help the convicted triple murderer avoid a lethal injection Sept. 15.

Keith, 46, who did not attend, was represented by nine speakers, including Ohio Public Defender Rachel Troutman, the National Innocence Network and the Ohio Innocence Project.

Operating before an audience of about 100 people in a sweltering hearing room at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitations and Corrections, Keith's team offered a seven-hour appeal punctuated by multiple presentations, expert witnesses in memory and faulty identification, a man wrongfully convicted of murder and a rape victim who misidentified her attacker.

Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the state corrections department, said most defendants are allotted one hour to plead their case, but the board gave Keith's supporters leeway. The hearing surpassed the previous longest hearing of 10 hours in 2007, Walburn said.

The bottom line, according to Troutman, is Keith is innocent of killing three people at Bucyrus Estates on Feb. 13, 1994, and wounding three others in a shooting spree.

"They arrested Kevin Keith and hoped to find evidence to link him to the crime," Troutman said. "Mr. Keith wants a full pardon."

That can only come from Gov. Ted Strickland, who can accept, reject, or ignore the recommendation from the nine-member clemency panel. The panel isn't expected to make its recommendation before Aug. 18.

Troutman asked the panel to consider one of three alternate suspects for the crime. She focused particularly on Rodney Melton. Troutman based her argument on what the state labeled an unsubstantiated third-person accusation that Melton was paid $15,000 to cripple a member of the Chatman family for being a police informant.

"Absolutely incredulous," was the state's response to that claim.

"There is no reason for Rodney to take out his own family," Crawford County Assistant Prosecutor Cliff Murphy said. Melton was an uncle to one of the victims.

Murphy's colleague, Brenda Leikala, followed up on the point.

"(Melton) is still an accepted member of this family," she said.

The defense also questioned identifications of Keith by surviving victims Richard Warren, Quanita Reeves and Quentin Reeves. The latter two were 6 and 4 at the time.

"It was the scariest night of my life," Quanita Reeves wrote in a statement to the board. "I seen Kevin Keith's face as plain as day."

The defense argued that on the night of the crime, Quanita identified the man who shot her as "Daddy's friend, Bruce." The state countered with commentary from Quanita's mother, who said the girl routinely mixed up Kevin Keith's name with the name of another of her father's friends.

Keith's representatives also poked at evidence regarding the car police believe left a license plate impression in a snow bank that night and at a lack of forensic evidence linking the former Crestline resident to the crime.

The state responded with a three-hour presentation of its own, using a video interview of Warren from his hospital bed, conducted within hours of the crime. Warren picked Keith from a photo lineup and said he didn't know the man, but said murder victim Marichell Chatman had told him his name was Kevin Keith and he was part of a big drug bust in Crestline recently.

The state's witnesses say Keith unzipped a bag, took out a gun and began shooting. When Marichell Chatman began pleading for the children's lives, Keith is reported to have said, "Well, you should have thought about this before your brother started ratting on people."

Warren was able to escape the apartment, and made his way across a field to Ike's Restaurant, where a 9-1-1 call was placed.

Police reported one of the shell casings from the shooting was later found on Walnut Street, where Keith picked up his girlfriend later that night after she got off work from GE in Bucyrus. It was about 1.5 miles from the crime scene.

In conclusion, Jim Slagle of the Ohio Attorney General's office argued that contrary to Keith's claims, there was no new evidence in the case.

"Probably 95 percent of the issues raised here were covered in the original trial," Slagle said. "The limited pieces of evidence that are mentioned here have been part of the various appeals over the years, and have been found to be without merit."

More (has quite a few comments);
www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100812/NEWS01/8120302

www.coshoctontribune.com/article/20100812/NEWS01/8120307/1002/rss01

www.marionstar.com/article/20100812/NEWS01/8110315/Kevin-Keith-clemency-hearing-lasts-12-hours

[thinkinkmesa]

Victims, family say they're certain Kevin Keith pulled trigger

The victims and their families in the
Kevin Keith case spoke out at a clemency hearing for
the convicted triple murderer in Columbus on
Wednesday.

Keith was convicted in 1994 of the shooting deaths
of Marichell Chatman, her 4-year-old daughter
Marchae and her aunt, Linda Chatman. Also shot
were Marichell's two cousins and her friend, Richard
Warren.

In the most emotional part of the day-long hearing
before the Ohio Parole Authority Board at the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitations and Corrections, the
youngest shooting victim, Quentin Reeves, spoke.

"I don't lie. He was sweat-ing, a lot. He had a little
black bag and then started telling us to get on the
ground. I saw sparks from the gun. I saw my sister
get up and he shot her again," said Quentin, who is
in his early 20s now but was just 4 when he was
shot at the Bucyrus Estates apartment of his cousin,
Marichell Chatman.

His sister, Quanita Reeves, was 6 at the time of the
Feb. 13, 1994, shootings.

"I know it was Kevin who shot us. I saw his face,"
Quanita said.

In a statement to the board, Quanita referred to the
incident as the scariest night of her life.

"After I recovered, I was still scared for me and
Quentin's lives. I would be thinking that he would
get out and come back to finish the job," Quanita
Reeves said.

Their mother, Joyce Reeves, spoke to the board from
the Mansfield Adult Parole Authority office by
satellite TV.

Joyce Reeves responded to Keith's defense
attorneys, who claim another man -- a friend of the
family -- committed the crime.

"If it was him, the kids would be terrified of him and
they are not. They told me when they were still in
the hospital it was Kevin who shot them," Joyce
Reeves said.

Damon Chatman, brother to Marichell, broke down
while speaking about his sister, niece and aunt.

"Kevin shot them. We need closure. We need for this
to be over," Damon Chatman said.

Daneiaka Howard, older sister to Marchae, felt ill
and had to leave the hearing minutes after reading
her statement to the board.

"I am the eldest sister to Marchae Chatman. I am for
the continuance of Kevin Keith's proceeding to
execution," said Howard, who was a ninth-grader
when she lost her baby sister.

Howard said she named her first-born child after
her little sister.

"I gave her the name of her aunt so that she could
live on in us," Howard said of her little girl, Dayana
Marshae.

Marchae's aunt, Carol Roberts-Cole, read a
statement and one from her brother, Uvon Roberts,
who is Marchae's father.

"My daughter was 4 years old when her life wasviolently cut short by a senseless act of violence
committed by Kevin Keith," Uvon Roberts wrote.

Marichell's uncle, Herb Chatman, spoke directly to
Keith, even though he was not present for the
proceedings.

"Your death will bring a form of closure to our
family as far as our anger and hatred that we have
towards you, that is the only thing that will be
closed and knowing that our tax dollars are no
longer taking care of the human garbage named
Kevin Keith," he said. "Our love and the pain that we
feel in our hearts for the loved ones that we lost so
tragically and senselessly will be with us forever."

More;
www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100812/NEWS01/8120301/1002/rss01

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio convicted killer of 3 asks for mercy

www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-convicted-killer-of-3-asks-for-mercy-856035.html

[guest]

Kevin Keith case: Shooting summary offers chilling details

This is the text of a document handed to the parole
board for a case review for death row inmate Kevin
Keith. It also was distributed to media
representatives covering Keith's clemency hearing
Wednesday in Columbus at the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Corrections:

DETAILS OF OFFENSE: On the evening of Feb. 13,
1994, Marichell Chatman, her 7-year-old daughter M
archae, and Richard Warren, who had been living
with Marichell and Marchae for several weeks, were
at Marichell's apartment in the Bucyrus Estates. At
the time, Marichell was babysitting her young
cousins, Quanita and Quentin Reeves. At
approximately 8:45 p.m., Marichell's aunt, Linda
Chatman, arrived at the apartment to pick up Quanita
and Quentin, Linda's niece and nephew.

A few minutes after Linda arrived, Warren noticed a
man standing outside the apartment door. Although
the man began to walk away without knocking,
Warren opened the door. The man turned and asked
for Linda. While Linda went outside and spoke with
the man, Marichell told Warren the man's full name.
Although Warren could recall only the first name,
Kevin, he later identified Kevin Keith as the man at
the door. Marichell also mentioned that Kevin had
been involved in a big drug bust.

After a short time, Linda and Keith returned to the
apartment where Keith and Warren had a brief
conversation. After drinking a glass of water, Keith
pulled a 9mm handgun from a plastic bag he carried
and ordered everyone to lie on the floor. Despite
Marichell's pleas with Keith on behalf of the
children, Keith placed the gun to her head. After
ordering Marichell to be quiet, Keith said, "Well, you
should have thought about this before your brother
started ratting on people."

Next, Warren heard a gunshot but was forced to
turn away when a bullet struck him in the jaw.
Warren heard 10 to 12 additional shots, two more
striking him in the back. After he heard the
apartment door close, Warren ran out of the
apartment, across a snow-covered field to Ike's Restaurant, yelling for help. For or five more shots
were fired, one striking him in the buttocks and
knocking him down. Warren was able to get up and
obtain help from the restaurant.

When medical personnel arrived at the Bucyrus
Estates apartment, Linda and Marichell Chatman
were dead, having suffered multiple gunshot
wounds, including fatal wounds to the neck or
head. All three children initially survived the attack.
However, Marchae's two gunshot wounds to her
back proved fatal. The Reeves children each
sustained two bullet wounds and serious injuries.

Investigators recovered a total of 24 cartridge
casings from the crime scene area, which had all
been fired from the same gun. In addition to those,
investigators recovered a casing found on the
sidewalk across from the entrance to a General
Electric plan. On the night of the murders, Keith
picked up his girlfriend, Melanie Davison, from
work at the entrance to the General Electric plant
where the casing was found.

UPDATE: The nine-member clemency panel has at
least until Wednesday to make a recommendation to
Gov. Ted Strickland. The governor has the option to
ignore or endorse the panel's recommendation, and
Strickland has done both while in office.

Ohio has executed seven people this year, second
only to Texas in the United States.

Keith is slated for execution on Sept. 15.

To read more;
www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/article/20100816/NEWS01/8160301/1002

[guest]

Clemency ruling on triple murderer Kevin Keith due this week

www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/article/20100816/NEWS01/8160303/1002/Clemency-ruling-on-triple-murderer-Kevin-Keith-due-this-week

[guest]

State, victims certain Kevin Keith is triple murderer

www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100816/NEWS01/8160309

[thinkinkmesa]

Kevin Keith triple murder: Attorneys await word on clemency

Ohio's nine-member clemency panel could have a recommendation ready for the governor by Wednesday in the Kevin Keith capital murder case.

Attorneys pleaded their cases in a marathon 12-hour hearing last week in Columbus. Keith was convicted of killing three people the night of Feb. 13, 1994, at Bucyrus Estates, and has been on Ohio's death row since. He is scheduled for a lethal injection Sept. 15.

Crawford County Assistant Prosecutor Cliff Murphy declined to comment on specifics of the case, saying lawyers are not supposed to litigate cases in the media.

More;
www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100817/NEWS01/8170310

[Amy]

On Death Row in Ohio: Is Kevin Keith an Innocent Man?

When last we left the sorry state of capital punishment in Ohio, hapless prison officials were attempting to execute the same man twice after failing to find a usable vein the first time they put him onto the gurney. They did not succeed -- the death row inmate, Romell Broom, is still alive -- but the embarrassing episode did cause the Buckeye State finally to reform its dubious lethal-injection protocols. That's the good news. The bad news is that a new case, the case of Kevin Keith, shows once again how far Ohio is from affording capital suspects even the most basic constitutional rights.

The horrible story starts, as many capital cases, do, with the sale of crack cocaine. At Keith's trial, prosecutors alleged, and jurors agreed, that on Feb. 13, 1994, Keith murdered three people in a spray of bullets, including a 4-year-old girl, because he believed the adults had informed on him to police investigating Keith's illegal drug sales. Several eyewitnesses came forward to testify against Keith. Notably, Keith's trial attorneys did not present mitigating evidence on his behalf during the sentencing phase of his trial, at which Keith received the death penalty.The first round of appeals ended in 1998. A second round of appeals, this time before the federal courts of Ohio, ended in 2008. And another set of appeals ended last week.

Keith now faces a Sept. 15 execution date while claiming still to be an innocent man. There is nothing unusual about such proclamations. They occur all the time and almost always fail. But the Keith case offers some compelling reasons why a new trial or at least a commutation of Keith's capital sentence may be warranted. Indeed, Keith's formal request for clemency to Gov. Ted Strickland reads like a Scott Turow novel. The discovery of new witnesses? Check. Whiff of prosecutorial misconduct? Check. Poor police work? Check. The presence of another, more likely suspect? Check. Terrible defense counsel? Check. The victim's family concerned that the wrong man has been tagged? Check.

To read the rest of the article/
www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/17/capital-punishment-in-ohio-is-kevin-keith-an-innocent-man/

[Amy]

Audio / www.wksu.org/news/story/26068
Death row inmate Kevin Keith goes before parole board tomorrow
Canton native scheduled to die next month; many want his case overturned

Tomorrow the Ohio Parole Board is expected to recommend whether Kevin Keith will live or die. Advocates...including death penalty proponents from around the country...believe the Stark County native may not have killed 2women and a little girl 16 years ago. Keith was convicted primarily on eyewitness testimony that may have been tainted. WKSU's Kevin Niedermier reports that Governor Ted Strickland...who will ultimately decide if Keith gets clemency...also has concerns.

[guest]

Condemned Ohio inmate denies role in slaying of 3

www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/condemned-ohio-inmate-denies-role-in-slaying-of-3-867699.html

[thinkinkmesa]

www.drc.ohio.gov/Public/clemency_keithaug2010.pdf

All eight board members voted to not recommend clemency.
(page 21)

This is the page to watch for Governor Strickland's Executive Clemency decision;
governor.ohio.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=64

[thinkinkmesa]

Parole Board recommends execution for Bucyrus killer

A panel recommended today that Gov. Ted Strickland not spare the life of a man convicted of murdering three people in Bucyrus in 1994 in a case that has drawn national attention.

In a unanimous vote, the Ohio Parole Board said the state should proceed with plans to execute Kevin Keith, now 46, on Sept. 15.

Keith has been on death row for the triple murder of family members of a drug informant who had told police about his involvement in cocaine trafficking in Crawford County.

Strickland has discretion on whether to follow the Parole Board's recommendation or ignore it. The governor has publicly called Keith's case "troubling."

Keith's defense has attracted national attention, with his supporters saying the state is about to execute an innocent man. The head of the national Innocence Project attended a 12-hour Parole Board hearing on Keith's case last week; former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro also has raised doubts about Keith's guilt.

Keith has maintained that he was not the gunman on a snowy February night in Bucyrus when 24-year-old Marichell Chatman; her 4-year-old daughter, Marchae; and the girl's 39-year-old aunt, Linda Chatman, were killed in a melee of gunfire that wounded three others.

Marichell Chatman was the sister of a confidential police informant who had tipped off authorities about a cocaine-trafficking ring in which Keith was a leader.

Keith's attorneys told the Parole Board last week that evidence points to another killer, Rodney Melton. Now 54, Melton had been indicted on a felony drug-trafficking charge after a tipster alerted police about his alleged involvement in a series of pharmacy robberies and drug sales. The indictment was later dismissed.

Melton, who had an extensive criminal history, was known to use a face mask similar to one seen on the Bucyrus gunman.

Officials in the Crawford County prosecutor's office and the attorney general's office noted that Melton was related to the Chatmans and that he later showed up at the scene of the murders unusual behavior for a killer. In addition, they said the informant who tipped off police about Melton was not the same person who told authorities about Keith.

Melton had threatened to "cripple" the person who led police to him.

More, or to leave comments;
www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/19/19-keith.html?sid=101

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio Parole Board tells Strickland to deny clemency to convicted killer Kevin Keith

Kevin Keith should be denied clemency and his date with the death chamber should not be delayed, says the Ohio Parole Board.
The parole board voted 8-0 to recommend that Gov. Ted Strickland deny clemency for the 46-year-old convicted killer.
Without a clemency decision from Strickland -- or a successful last-minute stay by a state or federal court -- Keith is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 15 at the Lucasville death chamber.

More;
www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/08/parole_board_to_strickland_den.html

Kevin Keith's clemency request rejected by Ohio Parole Board

www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100819/UPDATES01/100819006/Parole-board-says-no-to-Keith-clemency

Condemned Killer Of 3 Who Claims Innocence Denied Clemency

www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/aug/19/2/condemned-killer-3-who-claims-innocence-denied-cle-ar-199401/

[thinkinkmesa]

Statement from Kevin Keith's defense team

www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100819/UPDATES01/100819008/Statement-from-Kevin-Keith-s-defense-team

[guest]

Keith decision was board's 3rd unanimous one this year

www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/article/20100819/UPDATES01/100819009

[guest]

Details of Ohio board's clemency rejection report

www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/details-of-ohio-boards-clemency-rejection-report-869927.html

[guest]

New Petition

criminaljustice.change.org/petitions/view/tell_governor_strickland_grant_clemency_to_kevin_keith

[thinkinkmesa]

Now What? It's Up to Ted

gamso-forthedefense.blogspot.com/2010/08/now-what-its-up-to-ted.html

[guest]

Alternate theory did not sway panel in Kevin Keith clemency hearing

Excepts/

On Thursday, the board issued a unanimous recommendation that Gov. Ted Strickland should deny clemency to Keith, who is scheduled for a Sept. 15 execution.

"We are unable to find any substantial basis to recommend that Kevin Keith receive a full pardon for the crime," the panel wrote. "No mitigation is found in the crime itself and insufficient additional mitigation is found in Keith's background or current demeanor to warrant commutation of sentence."

The inmate's claims of innocence and a groundswell of support stirred by the Ohio Innocence Project created interest and controversy in the case.

More;
www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100820/NEWS01/8200320/1002/Alternate-theory-did-not-sway-panel-in-Kevin-Keith-clemency-hearing

[guest]

Editorial

Case for clemency
Kevin Keith will be executed next month, unless the governor protects against a horrendous mistake

www.ohio.com/editorial/opinions/101280299.html

[guest]

Ohio killer ends try to stop 2nd inmate execution

www.google.com/hostednews/ap/arti....uYDTMgD9HVCTH00

(Mentions Kevin Keith and Danny Hill)