On June 8, Ohio Governor John Kasich (pic­tured) grant­ed clemen­cy to Shawn Hawkins, com­mut­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole because of doubts about his role in a dou­ble mur­der. Hawkins was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 14. In May, the Ohio Parole Board unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed to spare Hawkins’ life, cit­ing con­flict­ing state­ments by the sole eye­wit­ness and pos­si­ble involve­ment of oth­er indi­vid­u­als who had not been ful­ly inves­ti­gat­ed. Republicans Ken Blackwell, a for­mer Ohio Secretary of State and 2006 guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date, for­mer Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, and state Sen. Bill Seitz all wrote let­ters to Gov. John Kasich or to the Parole Board on behalf of Hawkins. Sen. Seitz stat­ed, “[T]here is no rea­son to end Mr. Hawkins’ life on some­thing so utter­ly flim­sy as mis­han­dled and incon­clu­sive fin­ger­prints and the tes­ti­mo­ny of a wit­ness with every motive to lie.…” Hawkins is the first death row inmate to receive clemen­cy from Governor Kasich since he took office in January, and the sev­enth to be spared since Ohio resumed exe­cu­tions in 1999.

(A. Welsh-Huggins, ​“Ohio gov­er­nor spares con­demned killer of 2,” Associated Press, June 8, 2011; also, ear­li­er DPIC post­ing about the case). Ohio has car­ried out 45 exe­cu­tions since 1999. See Clemency, Innocence and Life Without Parole.

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