A lawyer familiar with the decision said Gov. Ted Strickland has commuted the death sentence of an inmate who claims innocence in a triple slaying.
The attorney told The Associated Press that Strickland will announce that he has commuted Kevin Keith's death sentence to life without parole. Keith, who entered Death Row 16 years ago, was granted clemency by the governor one week after Danny Lee Hill petitioned the state to delay Keith's execution.
Court documents dated Aug. 25 asked the court to delay the execution of fellow death row inmate Keith, so that Keith could help prove that Hill is mentally retarded.
The attorney spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made public by Strickland. Keith was scheduled to die Sept. 15 by injection for the 1994 shooting deaths of three people, including a 4-year-old girl.
Strickland issued the following statement Thursday afternoon:
"Kevin Keith was convicted, by a jury, of callously murdering three people - including a four-year old child - and shooting three others, including two young children. Since the time of his arrest more than 16 years ago, Mr. Keith has maintained his innocence, insisting that someone else committed the murders.
"Mr. Keith’s conviction has been repeatedly reviewed and upheld by Ohio and federal courts at the trial and appellate level. The Ohio Parole Board recommended against clemency in this case. There is evidence which links him to the crimes that, while circumstantial, is not otherwise well explained. It is my view, after a thorough review of the information and evidence available to me at this time, that it is far more likely that Mr. Keith committed these murders than it is likely that he did not.
"Yet, despite the evidence supporting his guilt and the substantial legal review of Mr. Keith’s conviction, many legitimate questions have been raised regarding the evidence in support of the conviction and the investigation which led to it. In particular, Mr. Keith’s conviction relied upon the linking of certain eyewitness testimony with certain forensic evidence about which important questions have been raised. I also find the absence of a full investigation of other credible suspects troubling.
"Clearly, the careful exercise of a governor’s executive clemency authority is appropriate in a case like this one, given the real and unanswered questions surrounding the murders for which Mr. Keith was convicted. Mr. Keith still has appellate legal proceedings pending which, in theory, could ultimately result in his conviction being overturned altogether. But the pending legal proceedings may never result in a full reexamination of his case, including an investigation of alternate suspects, by law enforcement authorities and/or the courts. That would be unfortunate – this case is clearly one in which a full, fair analysis of all of the unanswered questions should be considered by a court. Under these circumstances, I cannot allow Mr. Keith to be executed. I have decided, at this time, to commute Mr. Keith’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Should further evidence justify my doing so, I am prepared to review this matter again for possible further action."
