Eight Years After Exoneration, Court Declares Joe D’Ambrosio ​‘Wrongfully Imprisoned’

Eight years after his exon­er­a­tion from death row, an Ohio tri­al court judge has declared that Joe D’Ambrosio (pic­tured) was ​“wrong­ful­ly impris­oned.” The August 31, 2020 rul­ing by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Russo moves D’Ambrosio one step clos­er to receiv­ing com­pen­sa­tion for the more than two decades he spent on death row as a result of prosecutorial misconduct.

D’Ambrosio first filed suit seek­ing a dec­la­ra­tion of wrong­ful impris­on­ment in 2012, after the fed­er­al courts had barred his repros­e­cu­tion because of con­tin­u­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Ohio’s com­pen­sa­tion law required an appli­cant to prove that he or she was released as a result of a post-sen­tenc­ing or post-impris­on­ment ​“error in pro­ce­dure” or that he/​she did not com­mit the crime. D’Ambrosio alleged both ele­ments, argu­ing that the prosecution’s con­tin­u­ing sup­pres­sion of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence, even after his con­vic­tion, qual­i­fied as a req­ui­site pro­ce­dur­al error. Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tors opposed his lawsuit. 

Without reach­ing the inno­cence issue, Judge Russo ruled that the pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in D’Ambrosio’s case sup­port­ed a wrong­ful impris­on­ment dec­la­ra­tion. The Ohio Supreme Court sum­mar­i­ly reversed, based on an inter­ven­ing rul­ing hold­ing that a vio­la­tion that occurred pri­or to tri­al but was not adju­di­cat­ed until after­wards does not sat­is­fy the statute. D’Ambrosio refiled his claim in 2017, which Cleveland pros­e­cu­tors again opposed. In May 2019, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an order allow­ing the suit to go forward. 

While that appeal was pend­ing, the Ohio leg­is­la­ture amend­ed the com­pen­sa­tion law to explic­it­ly pro­vide that wrong­ful impris­on­ment includ­ed cas­es involv­ing the sup­pres­sion of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence that was dis­cov­ered “[s]ubsequent to sen­tenc­ing or dur­ing or sub­se­quent to impris­on­ment.” State pros­e­cu­tors opposed the leg­is­la­tion, argu­ing that only those who can defin­i­tive­ly prove their inno­cence should be deemed wrong­ful­ly impris­oned. When D’Ambrosio’s case returned to Judge Russo, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley argued that the statute was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because it applies retroactively. 

D’Ambrosio was cau­tious­ly opti­mistic about the dec­la­ra­tion of wrong­ful impris­on­ment. ​“It looks good, but I’m not get­ting excit­ed because I’ve played this roller coast­er before,” he said. ​“The mon­ey will nev­er give me back my life, [but] … I need some­thing to retire on.” 

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office has until September 30 to appeal the deci­sion. O’Malley has not yet announced whether he will appeal.

D’Ambrosio’s Wrongful Conviction

D’Ambrosio was con­vict­ed of bur­glary, kid­nap­ing, felony mur­der, and aggra­vat­ed mur­der and sen­tenced to death by a three-judge pan­el in 1989 for the killing of Tony Klann. Klann’s corpse was found in Doan Creek in Cleveland’s Rockefeller Park with mul­ti­ple stab wounds to the chest and his throat slit. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked D’Ambrosio to the crime. His con­vic­tion rest­ed on the false tes­ti­mo­ny of Edward Espinoza, who reached a deal with pros­e­cu­tors to plead guilty to manslaugh­ter and oth­er less­er charges in exchange for tes­ti­fy­ing against D’Ambrosio and a sec­ond defen­dant, Thomas Keenan. Espinoza served 12 years in prison and was released in 2001. Keenan was sen­tenced to death, and after his con­vic­tion was over­turned for pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, pled guilty to less­er charges to obtain his imme­di­ate release in 2016.

A fed­er­al dis­trict court over­turned D’Ambrosio’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in March 2006, after prison chap­lain, Rev. Neil Kookoothe — who had agreed to inves­ti­gate the case for D’Ambrosio — dis­cov­ered that Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tors had con­cealed mul­ti­ple pieces of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from the defense at tri­al. The con­cealed evi­dence includ­ed proof that Klann had not been mur­dered at the creek, as Espinoza had claimed, and that the man who first direct­ed police to D’Ambrosio as a sus­pect in Klann’s mur­der had alleged­ly raped Klann’s room­mate, had not been pros­e­cut­ed, and that Klann knew about the rape.

On June 5, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the dis­trict court’s rul­ing and on September 11, 2008, the dis­trict court ordered that D’Ambrosio be retried with­in 180 days. However, coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors con­tin­ued to con­ceal evi­dence even after being ordered to grant D’Ambrosio a new tri­al, wait­ed until a week before the tri­al was to begin to dis­close the exis­tence of blood sam­ples and soil sam­ples, and then — after the tri­al was delayed — wait­ed sev­er­al months more to dis­close that Espinoza had died and could not be cross-exam­ined about his false testimony.

On March 3, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen O’Malley issued an order bar­ring D’Ambrosio’s repros­e­cu­tion. She wrote:

“For 20 years, the State held D’Ambrosio on death row, despite wrong­ful­ly with­hold­ing evi­dence that ​‘would have sub­stan­tial­ly increased a rea­son­able juror’s doubt of D’Ambrosio’s guilt.’ Despite being ordered to do so by this Court, … the State still failed to turn over all rel­e­vant and mate­r­i­al evi­dence relat­ing to the crime of which D’Ambrosio was con­vict­ed. Then, once it was ordered to pro­vide D’Ambrosio a con­sti­tu­tion­al tri­al or release him with­in 180 days, … the State engaged in sub­stan­tial inequitable con­duct, wrong­ful­ly retain­ing and delay­ing the pro­duc­tion of yet more poten­tial­ly exculpatory evidence.”

Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tors appealed, and on August 29, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dis­trict court’s order. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the pros­e­cu­tors’ peti­tion to review the case on January 23, 2012, com­plet­ing D’Ambrosio’s exon­er­a­tion.

Cuyahoga County is one of the 2% of U.S. coun­ties that col­lec­tive­ly account for a major­i­ty of the nation’s death-row pris­on­ers and imposed more death sen­tences in 2018 – 2019 than any oth­er coun­ty in the U.S. In April 2020, anoth­er Cuyahoga County death-row pris­on­er, Melvin Bonnell, asked the Ohio Supreme Court to vacate his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence after his lawyers dis­cov­ered phys­i­cal evi­dence from his case that Cuyahoga County pros­e­cu­tors had repeat­ed­ly claimed had been lost or destroyed. Bonnell was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed February 12, 2020 but received a reprieve in December 2019. On September 4, 2020, he was grant­ed a sec­ond reprieve, mov­ing his resched­uled exe­cu­tion from March 18, 2021 to October 18, 2023.