The fam­i­ly of a man who was killed in Ohio recent­ly peti­tioned the parole board to com­mute the death sen­tence of the defen­dant in the mur­der. Peter Mah, son of Chong Hoon Mah, who was killed by Johnnie Baston (pic­tured) dur­ing a rob­bery in 1994, told the Ohio Parole Board, ​“I was opposed to Mr. Baston receiv­ing a death sen­tence at the time of his tri­al… [and] my fam­i­ly and I are opposed to Mr. Baston being exe­cut­ed.” During the tri­al, the fam­i­ly had filed affi­davits say­ing that they pre­ferred to see Baston spend his entire life in prison, but that sen­tenc­ing option was not avail­able at the time. The Board makes a rec­om­men­da­tion regard­ing clemen­cy to the gov­er­nor, who makes the final deci­sion. Baston’s attor­neys have com­pared his case to that of Jeffrey Hill of Ohio, whose death sen­tence was com­mut­ed to life with­out parole by for­mer Governor Ted Strickland. In Hill’s case, the parole board cit­ed the wish­es of the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly oppos­ing exe­cu­tion. Baston’s attor­neys have also pre­sent­ed evi­dence that he was abused as a child by his birth family. 

Baston is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on March 10. If the exe­cu­tion goes for­ward, it will be by a method nev­er used before in this coun­try– a sin­gle dose of pen­to­bar­bi­tal. UPDATE: The parole board unan­i­mous­ly reject­ed Baston’s peti­tion for a rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy. (Feb. 11, 2011).

(J. Provance, ​“Killer to ask Ohio gov­er­nor to spare his life, fam­i­ly of ​’94 Toledo vic­tim is against March exe­cu­tion,” Toledo Blade, February 2, 2011). See Life Without Parole and Victims.

Citation Guide