Richard Neilds

[thinkinkmesa]

Richard Neilds

ohiodeathrow.blogspot.com/2009/05/richard-neilds.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Clemency hearing today for Death Row inmate

A clemency hearing will take place Monday for a man convicted of murdering his girlfriend in 1997 in Hamilton County, according to state prison records.

Richard Nields, 59, is scheduled to be put to death on June 10 for killing Patricia Newsome at their Finneytown home.

He is held at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Mansfield.
www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20100510/UPDATES01/100510003

[thinkinkmesa]

Death penalty for crime of passion?

Public defenders for a Finneytown man who strangled his live-in girlfriend say the crime of passion is not deserving of a death sentence.

The lawyers told the Ohio Parole Board Monday that Richard Nields was an alcoholic with brain damage when he killed Patricia Newsome during a 1997 argument in their Finneytown home.
A Cincinnati federal appeals court is skeptical about Nields' death sentence, noting it barely reached the threshold for a capital charge.

Nields, scheduled to die June 10, is asking the board to recommend he be spared.

Hamilton County assistant prosecutor Phil Cummings says death was warranted because Nields often threatened to kill Newsome, then stole her car and travelers' checks after the slaying.

news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20100510/NEWS010702/305060023/

[thinkinkmesa]

There is this older article;
Ohio Justice Pfeifer's concern over DP grows

Ohio Justice Pfeifer's concern over DP grows
August 31, 2001

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer is using a pair of Hamilton County cases to underline his ongoing concern over capital punishment.

While a majority of the court on Wednesday upheld death sentences imposed in separate 1997 murders, Pfeifer voted to overturn both while chiding prosecutors for their zeal.

"Prosecutors should be exercising their discretion to look for reasons to spare persons from the death penalty rather than to shoehorn cases into the death penalty scheme," Pfeifer wrote about the case of Richard Nields.

"I believe that Ohioans thirst for justice, not blood," said Pfeifer, who is personally balking at capital punishment amid worries the death penalty often is unjustified and does not fit the crime.

Of the 202 inmates on Ohio's death row, 47 were sentenced from Hamilton County - 1 less than the 48 from Franklin and Cuyahoga counties combined.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen bristled at Pfeifer's comments. Jury decisions in capital cases should be respected, he said, and "when a jury sentences someone to death and a judge approves, that should be respected as well. Those reviewing the sentence ought not to substitute their personal beliefs for what the jury has found," he said.

Pfeifer also was in the minority in the 4-3 ruling Wednesday to deny Cincinnatian John Byrd Jr. a hearing on his claim of actual innocence in the 1983 murder of Monte Tewksbury. Byrd's execution is set for Sept. 12.

Pfeifer lashed out as the court rejected appeals to set aside the aggravated murder convictions and death sentences of Nields and Ahmad Fawzi Issa in 6-1 and 5-2 decisions, respectively.

Pfeifer, a Republican, was the lone dissenter in the case of Nields, an alcoholic convicted of beating his girlfriend, Patricia Newsome, in her home and later returning to strangle her.

Nields should not be executed because he stole travelers' checks and drove away in the victim's car - aggravated robbery offenses that made him eligible for the death penalty, said Pfeifer, who as a state senator co-sponsored the law that reinstated Ohio's death penalty in 1981.

Nields' crime was one "of passion imbued with pathos and reeking of alcohol," Pfeifer wrote.

Pfeifer also voted to overturn the death sentence of Issa since he was not the "principal offender" in the shooting deaths of Westwood convenience store owner Maher Khriss and his brother, Ziad, in the store parking lot.

Issa was convicted of recruiting and paying the gunman, Andrew Miles, and providing the gun. Miles, who was spared death by 2 holdout jurors, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pfeifer affirmed Issa's conviction, but said his death sentence should be reversed because it was excessive compared to the term of life imprisonment handed the killer.

"If ever a sentence of death deserved to be vacated because of proportionality, this is it," Pfeifer wrote.

Source;
truthinjustice.org/ohio-pfeifer.htm

[thinkinkmesa]

Board shows mercy for Ohio death row inmate

The Ohio Parole Board recommended clemency Tuesday for a condemned inmate scheduled to die next month for strangling his live-in girlfriend, in a rare gesture of mercy from the panel.

The board ruled 4-3 in favor of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for death row prisoner Richard Nields, scheduled to die June 10, according to a copy of the decision obtained by The Associated Press.

Nields, 59, killed Patricia Newsome during a 1997 argument in suburban Cincinnati.

In its decision, the board questioned the validity of medical evidence used at Nields' trial that helped support a death sentence. The ruling is only a recommendation for Gov. Ted Strickland, who has the final say.

Dr. Paul Shrode, then training in a medical fellowship at the Hamilton County coroner's office, testified at Nields' 1997 trial that bruising on the victim proved Nields beat his girlfriend, then returned 15 minutes later to strangle her to death.

But the deputy coroner who supervised Shrode at the time told the parole board Shrode's conclusions were not supported by science.

Dr. Robert Pfalzgraf, then a deputy coroner, said there was no scientific evidence to support how old the bruises on Newsome's body were.

Nields' attorneys argued that Shrode, a recent medical school graduate who had not yet completed his coroner's fellowship, was not as experienced as Pfalzgraf but was chosen by prosecutors over Pfalzgraf to testify at trial.

A message was left for Shrode, now the El Paso County, Texas, medical examiner, seeking comment.

The board also cited concerns by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Nields' death sentence barely fit the definition of capital punishment under Ohio law.

The board also cited a judge's dissent in a 2001 decision by the Ohio Supreme Court that upheld Nields' death sentence.

Justice Paul Pfeifer, who helped write Ohio's death penalty law as a state legislator in 1981, wrote that Nields' crime was not what lawmakers considered as a case eligible for the death penalty when creating the law.

"Members give significant weight to Justice Pfeifer's opinion in that he was a member of the Ohio General Assembly in 1981, and was one of the leading forces who helped write and enact Ohio's current death penalty statute," the ruling said.

Three members voted against clemency, pointing out that Nields had often threatened his girlfriend in the past. They also said the fact that he took Newsome's car, money and travelers' checks constituted aggravated robbery, an additional crime that made Nields eligible for death.

The dissenting board members also said Nields had a history of violence against women and tried to mislead police as they investigated Newsome's death.

"Given all of these facts, we do not believe that the outcome of the case would have been any different had the court and jury heard more reliable medical testimony," the dissenting members said.

Strickland, a Democrat, last year rejected a ruling by the board to grant clemency to a condemned inmate whose coconspirators did not receive death sentences.

Messages were left for Strickland and the Hamilton County prosecutor's office, which argued against clemency.

More;
www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/05/18/news/doc4bf2bee1b7aa4571616874.txt

www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/18/ohio-parole-board-recommends-clemency.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio death row inmate could be spared because of EP medical examiner's flawed testimony

www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_15109249?source=rss

[thinkinkmesa]

Strickland has to decide killer's fate

When does one murderer deserve to live while others die?

That's the weighty question the Ohio Parole Board handed Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday by recommending that Richard Nields should not be executed next month for killing his longtime girlfriend, Patricia Newsome, 59, in an alcohol-induced rage on March 27, 1997.

The day before Nields' 60th birthday, the board split 4-3 in urging clemency for the Hamilton County man, who is scheduled to be lethally injected June 10 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.

Strickland, a Democrat, former Methodist minister and prison psychologist, has rejected clemency 14 of 15 times in his first term as governor; all 14 men were executed.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters strongly objected to the clemency recommendation.

"For this board, after 13 years, to second-guess jurors and numerous judges is both frustrating and disturbing," he said. "I just hope that Gov. Strickland will reject this recommendation for clemency and let justice be carried out."

Deters said the implication is "that a deliberate murder during an aggravated robbery does not merit the death penalty. This office rejects that notion and suggests that the Parole Board is bound by Ohio law in this regard. They are not free to disregard this judgment of the Ohio legislature as to what crimes are death-eligible."

However, the board's recommendation comes at a crucial time, just days after Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer told The Dispatch that all 161 Death Row cases should be reviewed. He suggested that as a result of changes in the law and societal standards, many cases would not have resulted in death sentences had they been tried today.

That is the argument made by Nields' attorneys that four members of the parole board found persuasive. They said his sentence should be commuted to life without the possibility of parole.

They pointed to a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the facts in the case "just barely get Nields over the death threshold."

The board majority also cited Pfeifer's dissent in the 2002 case.

"The type of crime Nields did is not the type of crime the General Assembly did contemplate or should have contemplated as a death penalty offense," Pfeifer wrote. "It is about alcoholism, rage and rejection and about Nields' inability to cope with any of them. It is a crime of passion imbued with pathos and reeking of alcohol."

Parole board members who said Nields should be denied clemency cited his history of abuse against women, the fact that robbery was part of the crime and that Nields has not been "forthcoming about details of the offense and his prior history of violence."

Nields' guilt is undisputed. He told several people at bars he visited shortly after the murder that he killed his then-girlfriend. He later confessed to police.

Nields also described the murder in correspondence he wrote that became part of a book, Truth Be Told: Life Lessons from Death Row.

"I threw her down on the kitchen floor and strangled her to death. It was rage, insanity, I can't explain it. I just hated her so much at the moment I wanted her dead. I killed my best friend."

Nields added, "I didn't plan it, it happened in a blackout - an alcoholic blackout."

Court records show the couple had a volatile, decade-long relationship. She sold real estate; he was a musician who occasionally played keyboards in bars and clubs. They argued violently after Newsome told Nields to pack up and leave.

Nields was given the death penalty because prosecutors showed that the murder happened during a robbery. Nields stole Newsome's Cadillac, jewelry and traveler's checks after he strangled her.

More;
www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/19/copy/strickland-has-to-decide-killers-fate.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

[thinkinkmesa]

El Paso Chief Medical Examiner Paul Shrode is still not talking publicly about his testimony that may get an inmate in Ohio off death row.

An Ohio parole board voted 4-3 Tuesday to recommend clemency for Richard Nields, 59, who was convicted of killing Patricia Newsome in 1997.

Questions surrounded his testimony regarding medical evidence he supplied during the trial.

Newschannel 9 went to Shrode's office Wednesday, seeking comment on his testimony as well as nagging questions about his resume.

Shrode's office said he was unavailable for comment.
www.ktsm.com/shrode/shrode-still-not-speaking


Embattled El Paso county medical examiner fired


El Paso County's medical examiner was fired Monday following years of questions about his resume and qualifications.

Dr. Paul Shrode, who testified in an Ohio capital murder case where officials are now recommending the death sentence be overturned, was released from his job after a 3-1 vote by county commissioners, said commissioner Veronica Escobar.

Questions about Shrode's qualifications have swirled since he acknowledged in 2007 that he lied on his resume about having a law degree. Last year, the county was notified that Shrode was no longer eligible to become board certified in pathology, despite his claims of having received the certification years earlier, Escobar said.

"Cumulatively his own actions have made it so that it's hard for the community to have faith in Dr. Shrode and for me to have faith in Dr. Shrode," Escobar said after the vote.

Shrode did not return a phone message Monday seeking comment.

Defense lawyers in Ohio challenged his testimony in a 13-year-old capital murder case, which prompted the Ohio Parole Board to recommend that Richard Nields' death sentence be overturned. He is scheduled for execution June 10.

The Ohio board, which ruled 4-3 in favor of recommending that Gov. Ted Strickland convert the death sentence to one of life without the possibility of parole, questioned the validity of medical testimony from Shrode during Nields' 1997 trial.

Shrode, who was training in a medical fellowship at the time, testified that bruising on the victim's neck showed that he beat the woman before strangling her 15 minutes later. A deputy coroner who oversaw Shrode's work at the time told the parole board that science didn't support that conclusion.

Lawyers for a Texas man scheduled to be executed July 1 told the El Paso Times they are also reviewing the Ohio case and plan to challenge Shrode's testimony against Michael James Perry, who was convicted of killing a woman in Montgomery County, north of Houston.
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9FTFEPG0.html

Update: County Commissioners fire El Paso medical examiner Paul Shrode

www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15148023?source=most_viewed

Shrode resume
extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2010/0110/20100110_053846_Shroderesume.pdf

Transcript: Cross examination of Shrode
extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2010/0110/20100110_053811_Shrodercase.pdf

County Commissioners vote 3-1 to fire medical examiner Paul Shrode
www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15150655

[guest]

Ohio board casts rare vote for mercy for inmate

In a rare gesture, the Ohio Parole Board recommended clemency Tuesday for a condemned inmate sentenced to die next month for strangling his live-in girlfriend.

The board ruled 4-3 in favor of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for Richard Nields, who is scheduled to die June 10. Nields, 59, killed Patricia Newsome during a 1997 argument in suburban Cincinnati.

In its decision, the board questioned the validity of medical evidence used at Nields' trial that helped support a death sentence. The ruling is only a recommendation for Gov. Ted Strickland, who has the final say.

The state has executed 14 men since Strickland, a Democrat, took office in 2007. Of those cases, the parole board twice recommended mercy. Strickland followed the board's recommendation in one case and overruled its finding in the other, allowing Jason Getsy to be executed.

Dr. Paul Shrode, then training in a medical fellowship at the Hamilton County coroner's office, testified at Nields' 1997 trial that bruising on the victim proved Nields beat his girlfriend, then returned 15 minutes later to strangle her.

But the deputy coroner who supervised Shrode at the time told the parole board that Shrode's conclusions were not supported by science.

Dr. Robert Pfalzgraf, then a deputy coroner, said there was no scientific evidence to support how old the bruises on Newsome's body were.

Nields' attorneys argued that Shrode, a recent medical school graduate who had not yet completed his coroner's fellowship, was not as experienced as Pfalzgraf but was chosen by prosecutors over Pfalzgraf to testify at trial.

A message seeking comment was left for Shrode, now the medical examiner in El Paso County, Texas.

The board cited concerns by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Nields' death sentence barely fit the definition of capital punishment under Ohio law.

Juries in Ohio must find offenders guilty of a serious secondary offense — such as rape, arson or aggravated robbery — in addition to aggravated murder to recommend a death sentence.

Nields was convicted of aggravated robbery for taking Newsome's car and money from her purse. But the appeals court questioned whether those acts supported the robbery charge.

The board also cited a judge's dissent in a 2001 decision by the Ohio Supreme Court that upheld Nields' death sentence.

Justice Paul Pfeifer, who helped write Ohio's death penalty law as a state legislator in 1981, wrote that Nields' crime was not what lawmakers considered as a case eligible for the death penalty when creating the law.

"This case is not about robbery," Pfeifer wrote. "It is about alcoholism, rage and rejection and about Nields' inability to cope with any of them."

Members of the parole board "give significant weight to Justice Pfeifer's opinion in that he was a member of the Ohio General Assembly in 1981, and was one of the leading forces who helped write and enact Ohio's current death penalty statute," the ruling said.

Three members voted against clemency, pointing out that Nields had threatened his girlfriend in the past. They said the fact that he took Newsome's car, money and travelers' checks constituted aggravated robbery.

They also said Nields tried to mislead police as they investigated Newsome's death.

"Given all of these facts, we do not believe that the outcome of the case would have been any different had the court and jury heard more reliable medical testimony," the dissenting members said.

Strickland examines each clemency request thoroughly and on a case-by-case basis, spokeswoman Amanda Wurst said Tuesday.

Pfeifer declined to comment on the board's decision, saying his dissent spoke for itself. Last week, the Republican justice said the cases of death row inmates in Ohio should be reviewed to see if all deserved capital punishment.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters urged Strickland on Tuesday to reject the board's ruling and allow Nields to be executed.

"The implication of the Parole Board's opinion is that a deliberate murder during an aggravated robbery does not merit the death penalty," Deters said in a statement. "For this board, after thirteen years, to second guess jurors and numerous judges is both frustrating and disturbing."

More;
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/7010953.html

[Amanda]

I am writing a plea to anyone out there that reads this before Richard's date for execution on June 10th of this year. PLEASE send Govenor Stictland a message begging for clemancy or postponment of his execution. I have not had contact w/Rich in 20 years but for a period of about a year he taught me piano when I was abt 12. I didn't run into Rich from a newspaper add for piano teachers or any of the such;instead my Mom worked with him & he was always a friendly, dependable, hard working man. Rich was a recovering alcoholic when he was hired on at my mother's place of employment & was very open about it.My mom knew I wanted to take lessons so she invited him into our home 1x a week & he was great. I had had a couple years of training on saxaphone so I was not totally illiterate when it came to music but he was kind,patient,caring,encouraging & everything u would want in a teacher. Unlike many naturally skilled musicans like Rich(who even subbed on the Tonight show at times) he was able to explain things calmly instead of just taking it for granted & expecting me to know. He taught me songs such as "Never on Sunday" & "In the mood" as well as a blues version of Amazing grace that I still can play. There was a point he got his own place & my Mom even gave him silverware & things to help set him up...this is how much we thought of him. I have thought of this man many times over the years & wanted to contact him...just didn't know his time was this short.
Knowing him as a person I honestly think this was a crime of passion & not pre-meditated & he does not deserve to be on death row. I beleive in punishment & think he should stay in prison but be able to live. Since he taught me so much about music & life I will end in the words of U2's song Walk On... You've got to leave it behind & walk on. Please allow him to walk on for the remainder of his days.

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio Gov. Spares Killer From Execution

Gov. Ted Strickland decided to commute the death sentence for inmate Richard Nields to life in prison without parole.

Strickland made the announcement Friday, June 4, six days before Nields was scheduled to die by lethal injection.

The Ohio Parole Board recommended in May that Nields be granted a commutation to life in prison without parole. The board cited medical testimony at Nields’ trial that was later called into question, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeiffer’s dissenting opinion when the court upheld Nields’ conviction, and concerns expressed by judges on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Strickland said he reviewed that material and more and decided to concur with the Parole Board.

Nields, now 60, was convicted in the March 1997 aggravated murder and robbery of Patricia Newsome in Springfield Twp., in Hamilton County.

www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/ohiopolitics/entries/2010/06/04/strickland_spares_killers_life.html?cxtype=feedbot

[thinkinkmesa]

Governor's Statement on Parole Board Recommendation Regarding Richard Nields

Governor Ted Strickland today issued the following statement regarding the pending clemency application of Richard Nields:

"As a result of his conviction for aggravated murder, Mr. Richard Nields is scheduled to be executed on June 10, 2010. I have completed a review of the circumstances surrounding his case to determine if executive clemency is warranted.

"On May 10, 2010, a majority of the members of the Ohio Parole Board recommended that Mr. Nields be granted a commutation of his death sentence to a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Parole Board majority cited three basic reasons for its recommendation: the medical testimony of Dr. Shrode, which was relied on at trial by the prosecutor and the trial judge but subsequently called into substantial question; the dissent of Justice Pfeiffer to the Ohio Supreme Court decision upholding Mr. Nields' conviction; and the concerns expressed by the Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit who affirmed Mr. Nields' conviction but noted that ?the circumstances of this case just barely get Nields over the death threshold under Ohio law.?

"In making my determination regarding Mr. Nields' clemency application, my staff and I have reviewed the judicial decisions regarding Mr. Nields? conviction, Mr. Nields' application for executive clemency and its appendix, and arguments presented for and against clemency at the Parole Board hearing regarding his application for executive clemency. We also reviewed institutional records and letters received in the Governor's Office regarding this matter, the Parole Board's report and recommendation, and the exhibits presented at the Parole Board's hearing. In addition, we have reviewed the materials submitted to the Governor's Office by Mr. Nields' counsel after the Parole Board made its recommendation.

"Based on this review, I concur with the rationale and recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board majority and have, therefore, decided to commute Mr. Nields' sentence to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole."

governor.ohio.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=1678

[thinkinkmesa]

Inmate moved off Death Row
Strickland grants clemency to man set to die Thursday for strangling girlfriend in 1997

Richard Nields owes his life to two opinionated judges and flawed testimony by a now-disgraced medical examiner.

True, it was Gov. Ted Strickland who approved clemency yesterday, sparing Nields from his June 10 execution.

But both Strickland and the Ohio Parole Board, in deciding in favor of life without parole for Nields, agreed that his case was not the "worst of the worst" that Ohio lawmakers envisioned when they re-enacted Ohio's capital punishment law in 1981.

"I concur with the rationale and recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board majority and have, therefore, decided to commute Mr. Nields' sentence to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole," Strickland said in a statement.

It was the second time in 16 cases to come before him that Strickland approved clemency. The other was Jeffrey D. Hill, also a Hamilton County case, in February 2009.

So, instead of a long, one-way ride from the Ohio Penitentiary in Youngstown to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville, Nields will move off of Death Row next week and into the general population of another Ohio prison.

He will be just another inmate, no longer a condemned man.

Carol Wright, Nields' federal public defender, said Nields was "very excited and very thankful" when he learned clemency had been approved.

"We're extremely pleased the governor recognized the compelling nature of Rich's case," Wright said. "This started out as a case that was not the worst of the worst."

Nields, 60, was sentenced to be executed for choking to death his longtime girlfriend, Patricia Newsome, 59, in an alcohol-induced rage on March 27, 1997. His conviction and death sentence were upheld by courts at all levels.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters said yesterday that he was "disappointed" at the governor's decision. He said previously it was "frustrating and disturbing" that Strickland and the Parole Board would substitute their judgment for decisions made by courts and judges over 13 years.

At the heart of the clemency ruling were questions raised by Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer and Judge Ronald Lee Gilman of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and testimony, since discredited, by Dr. Paul Shrode, a former Hamilton County medical examiner.

Shrode testified in Nields' 1997 murder trial that bruises on Newsome's neck showed that he choked her, left for up to two hours, then returned and finished the job. That made the murder premeditated, not an impulsive act of passion.

Dr. Robert Pfalzgraf, Shrode's supervisor in Hamilton County, later said the findings were not "scientifically supported."

Shrode was fired recently as acting chief medical examiner in El Paso County, Texas.

Nields' attorneys also pointed to Judge Gilman's comment in July 2007 that his case "just barely gets Nields over the death threshold."

Justice Pfeifer, in his dissent in the 2002 decision affirming Nields' death sentence, said the murder was "a crime of passion imbued with pathos and reeking of alcohol."

Nields described Newsome's murder in a book that contained some of his Death Row correspondence.

"I threw her down on the kitchen floor and strangled her to death. It was rage, insanity, I can't explain it. I just hated her so much at the moment I wanted her dead. I killed my best friend."

More;
www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/06/05/copy/inmate-moved-off-death-row.html?adsec=politics&sid=101