Ohio Governor Commutes Death Sentence

[flashl]

Source: NY Times

Death row inmate John Spirko wanted a pardon or the chance to leave prison and prove his innocence. He got neither, though he did escape execution.

Gov. Ted Strickland commuted Spirko's death sentence to life in prison on Wednesday, a week after the state attorney general's office said it had concluded no DNA evidence linked Spirko to a 26-year-old murder.

Strickland made clear he wasn't convinced of Spirko's innocence. But he said he couldn't ignore the lack of physical evidence linking Spirko to the 1982 slaying of Betty Jane Mottinger and ''the slim residual doubt'' about Spirko's responsibility for it.

Those factors make ''the imposition of the death penalty inappropriate in this case,'' said Strickland, a death penalty supporter.

NY Times - Read Full Text

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Death-Sentence-Commuted.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[riqster]

1. Good one, Ted!

[cstanleytech]

2. Nice, if only more showed

this kinda guts while in office instead of being cowards for fear of losing an election.

[riqster]

3. Strickland is pretty sharp

He's got to deal with an entrenched Reep establishment (one of the nation's most corrupt in fact), and a truly shitty state party. He gets a lot more done than I expected, and I am glad of it.