The pros­e­cu­tor who helped secure the death sen­tence of John Eley (pic­tured) and one of the pre­sid­ing judges who sen­tenced him to death recent­ly asked the Ohio Parole Board to rec­om­mend clemen­cy instead. Former Mahoning County pros­e­cu­tor Gary Van Brocklin told the state parole board that Eley should be spared from exe­cu­tion because the type of crime he com­mit­ted is no longer usu­al­ly pros­e­cut­ed as a death penal­ty case and is not so egre­gious as to deserve cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Van Brocklin said, ​“It was­n’t in the more heinous nature of cas­es that now receive the death penal­ty.” Van Brocklin also said that Eley was act­ing under the instruc­tion of a man named Melvin Green, who was the mas­ter­mind behind the shoot­ing. Green was acquit­ted of the mur­der, in part because Eley refused to tes­ti­fy against him. 

Judge Peter C. Economus, who is now a fed­er­al judge but who had vot­ed for Eley’s death sen­tence in Ohio, wrote to the Parole Board, say­ing he orig­i­nal­ly agreed with the death sen­tence only because Eley’s attor­neys pre­sent­ed lit­tle mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence: ​“If I had been pre­sent­ed the addi­tion­al mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence out­lined in the clemen­cy peti­tion at the time of the tri­al, espe­cial­ly evi­dence of Mr. Eley’s low intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing, his impov­er­ished child­hood, his sig­nif­i­cant alco­hol and sub­stance abuse, and his prob­a­ble brain impair­ment, I would have vot­ed for a sen­tence less than death.” The judge asked that clemen­cy be giv­en and expressed sur­prise that the sen­tence had not been low­ered ear­li­er by the courts.

Attorneys for John Eley pre­sent­ed evi­dence of his men­tal dis­abil­i­ties, alco­hol and drug abuse, and of his men­tal ill­ness in their peti­tion for clemen­cy. Eley is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on July 26 unless Governor John Kasich decides to spare his life.

(“Prosecutor seeks mer­cy for con­demned Ohio killer,” Associated Press, June 13, 2012; let­ter of Judge Economus to Ohio Parole Board and Gov. Kasich, June 7, 2012). Read more about John Eley’s case.. See Clemency and New Voices. Listen to DPIC’s audio pod­cast on Clemency. UPDATE: Follow-up let­ter of Van Brocklin to Ohio Parole Board, June 13, 2012. UPDATE: Ohio Parole Board vot­ed 5 – 3 against rec­om­mend­ing clemen­cy, but not­ed the state­ments of the for­mer pros­e­cu­tor and judge. Gov. Kasich will make the final deci­sion on clemen­cy, and does not have to fol­low the Board’s recommendation.

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