On September 6, Michael Keenan (pic­tured) was released from prison after spend­ing about 20 years on Ohio​’s death row. Keenan and co-defen­dant Joseph D’Ambrosio, who was exon­er­at­ed in April, were con­vict­ed of the 1988 mur­der of Tony Klann. Keenan’s first con­vic­tion was over­turned in 1994, but he was retried and again sen­tenced to death. His sec­ond con­vic­tion was over­turned ear­li­er in 2012 due to pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Prosecutors with­held evi­dence that could have exon­er­at­ed Keenan and D’Ambrosio, includ­ing police state­ments that dis­cred­it­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from the only eye­wit­ness to the crime and evi­dence that the man who led police to Keenan had a pos­si­ble motive for killing the vic­tim. A Cuyahoga County judge dis­missed all charges against Keenan and barred a re-tri­al, but the state may still appeal that deci­sion. If today’s deci­sion is upheld, Keenan will like­ly be added to DPIC’s Innocence List. Since 1973, 140 peo­ple have been exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row. Six of those exon­er­a­tions have been from Ohio, including D’Ambrosio.

(P. Krouse, ​“Michael Keenan freed, mur­der charge from 24 years ago dis­missed by Cuyahoga County judge,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 6, 2012; ref­er­ence in the arti­cle to Keenan plead­ing guilty are inac­cu­rate based on cor­re­spon­dence from Keenan’s attor­neys). See also Innocence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, and Ohio. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Innocence.

MORE: Read Ohio Judge John Russo’s deci­sion dis­miss­ing all charges against for­mer death row inmate Michael Keenan and bar­ring a retri­al: “[I]t is with­out ques­tion, based on the egre­gious his­to­ry of the pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and the Brady vio­la­tions out­lined in detail by both the Ohio Supreme Court and the Northern District Court of Ohio in this case that the State will­ful­ly with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from Keenan and his attor­neys.” (Ohio v. Keenan, Sept. 6, 2012).

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