78 Ohio inmates win clemency, 10 for 'fundamental

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78 Ohio inmates win clemency, 10 for 'fundamental injustice'

Ohio's governor has granted clemency to 78 convicts, including a man serving a life sentence for murder who is now believed to be innocent.

Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, said he and his staff had spent more than 1,000 hours reviewing 296 clemency requests. Of those, 10 cases were approved because of what he called "fundamental injustice" or because the sentence was disproportionate to that of other inmates who committed similar crimes, the Columbus Dispatch reports. The vast majority of pardons were for minor, nonviolent offenses.

Willie Knighten Jr., 37, was convicted of a 1996 murder in Lucas County and will be released tomorrow.

"The trial and sentencing judge in Mr. Knighten's case determined that his original finding of guilt was in error and that Mr. Knighten has now served 12 years in prison for an offense he likely did not commit," Strickland said in a statement.

content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009/11/78-ohio-inmates-win-clemency-10-for-fundamental-injustice/1

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Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland on Monday granted clemency to 78 inmates, none of them on death row, after a painstaking review of three years of requests extending into his predecessor's term.

Sixty-eight people, most of whom had already served their time, were granted pardons. Ten people had their sentences commuted; most of them are behind bars and expecting release.

Among those receiving commutations is a Toledo gang member, Willie Knighten Jr., whose judge openly expressed second thoughts about his conviction. Knighten, 37, had written more than 100 letters to authorities insisting on his innocence since he was convicted of murder in 1996. He has served 12 years in prison.

Karla Hall, staff attorney at the Ohio Innocence Project, said she was delighted to hear Knighten's sentence had been commuted.

"I'm thrilled for Willie and think he will absolutely become a great citizen. He has a great deal of family support behind him," she said. "I would be completely comfortable if he moved in as my next door neighbor."

Strickland, a former prison psychologist, says he personally reviewed all 296 clemency applications. He estimated that he, his chief legal counsel Kent Markus and staff members put in 1,000 hours reviewing the requests, made between 2005 and 2007.

Of 63 clemency requests from 2005 and 2006 and lingering from the administration of former Gov. Bob Taft, Strickland denied 30 requests and granted clemency 33 times _ 29 pardons and four commutations.

Of 233 clemency requests from 2007, he denied 188 requests and granted clemency 45 times _ 39 pardons and six commutations.

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Strickland agreed with the recommendations of the Ohio Parole Board 267 times out of 296, or 90 percent of the time. He disagreed 16 times with board recommendations to grant clemency, and disagreed 13 times with its recommendations to deny clemency.

"I would describe it as a very careful use of clemency powers based upon the totality of the information we had available to us as we considered each of the individual cases," Strickland said.

Strickland, a Democrat and death penalty supporter, was slow to use his executive powers to pardon people's crimes and commute their prison sentences when he took office in January 2007.

He denied clemency three times in 2007 in death row inmates, two of whom were executed. The third, Kenneth Biros, had his execution delayed by the U.S. Supreme Court _ but he faces death again next month.

In January 2008, Strickland commuted the death sentence of convicted murdered John Spirko to life in prison. Spirko maintained he did not kill postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger in 1982, and the lack of physical evidence linking Spirko to the murder left the governor with "slim residual doubt."

Strickland now turns to 177 cases recommended for clemency in 2008 by the parole board, then to 226 requests made this year.

www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/92/2009/november/23/ohio-gov-grants-clemency-to-78-inmates.html