On September 26, Ohio Governor John Kasich (pic­tured) grant­ed clemen­cy to Joseph Murphy, com­mut­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole, cit­ing the defen­dan­t’s hor­rif­ic child­hood. Murphy was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on October 18. The Ohio Parole Board had unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed spar­ing Murphy’s life, cit­ing evi­dence from Murphy’s child­hood that indi­cat­ed he was beat­en, starved and sex­u­al­ly abused. The Parole Board also cit­ed a 1992 Ohio Supreme Court deci­sion in which late Justice Moyer said he knew of no oth­er case in which a defen­dant ​“was as des­tined for dis­as­ter as was Joseph Murphy.” Governor Kasich issued the fol­low­ing state­ment regard­ing the clemen­cy: ​“Joseph Murphy’s mur­der of Ruth Predmore was heinous and dis­turb­ing and he deserves — and con­tin­ues to receive — severe pun­ish­ment. Even though as a child and ado­les­cent Murphy suf­fered unique­ly severe and sus­tained ver­bal, phys­i­cal and sex­u­al abuse from those who should have loved him, it does not excuse his crime.… After exam­in­ing this case in detail with coun­sel I agree with Chief Justice Moyer, the National Association of Mental Illness and the Parole Board’s unan­i­mous 8 – 0 deci­sion that con­sid­er­ing Joseph Murphy’s bru­tal­ly abu­sive upbring­ing and the rel­a­tive­ly young age at which he com­mit­ted this ter­ri­ble crime, the death penal­ty is not appro­pri­ate in this case. Thus, I have com­mut­ed his sen­tence to life in prison with no chance for parole.”

Murphy is the sec­ond death row inmate to receive clemen­cy from Governor Kasich since he took office in January, and the eighth to be spared since Ohio resumed exe­cu­tions in 1999.

(“Kasich spares con­demned killer, cites bad child­hood,” Associated Press on CBSNews​.com, September 27, 2011; ​“Kasich Commutes Murphy Death Sentence to Life Without Parole,” Office of the Governor, September 26, 2011). Ohio has car­ried out 45 exe­cu­tions since 1999, includ­ing 4 this year. See Clemency, Innocence and Life Without Parole. Compare to the case of Jerry Jackson, who was exe­cut­ed in Virginia ear­li­er in 2011.

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