Ohio Governor Commutes Death Sentence Based on Jurors Concerns About Unfair Sentencing

Ohio Governor John Kasich (pic­tured, left) has com­mut­ed the death sen­tence imposed on Raymond Tibbetts (pic­tured, right) to life with­out parole, in response to a juror’s con­cerns about the unfair­ness of the sen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings in the case. It was the sev­enth time Kasich had com­mut­ed a pris­on­er’s death sentence. 

The July 20, 2018, news release announc­ing the com­mu­ta­tion explained that Kasich had grant­ed clemen­cy because ​“fun­da­men­tal flaws in [the] sen­tenc­ing phase of [Tibbetts’s] tri­al … [had] pre­vent­ed the jury from mak­ing an informed deci­sion about whether Tibbetts deserved the death penalty.”

Kasich had pre­vi­ous­ly issued Tibbetts a reprieve, delay­ing his sched­uled February 13 exe­cu­tion until October 17, after receiv­ing a detailed let­ter from juror Ross Geiger ask­ing him ​“to show mer­cy” to Tibbetts. Geiger’s January 30 let­ter alert­ed the gov­er­nor to seri­ous flaws in the tri­al that mis­led jurors to sen­tence Tibbetts to death, includ­ing defense coun­sel’s fail­ure to present crit­i­cal mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence about Tibbetts’s hor­rif­ic upbring­ing and the pros­e­cu­tion’s mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of impor­tant details of Tibbetts’s family history. 

“If I had known all the facts,” Geiger wrote, ​“if the pros­e­cu­tors had been hon­est and forth­com­ing about the hor­rors [Tibbetts] and his sib­lings expe­ri­enced in the fos­ter care sys­tem, and if we had an accu­rate under­stand­ing of the effects of Mr. Tibbetts’ severe drug and alco­hol addic­tion and his improp­er opi­oid pre­scrip­tion, I would have vot­ed for life with­out parole over death.” 

As part of his order grant­i­ng the reprieve, Gov. Kasich direct­ed the Ohio Parole Board to recon­vene to hear Geiger’s con­cerns and to recon­sid­er Tibbetts’s request for clemen­cy. However, even after hear­ing from Geiger, the parole board vot­ed 8 – 1 to rec­om­mend against clemency.

In a state­ment by Tibbetts’s lawyers prais­ing the com­mu­ta­tion, Erin Barnhart said, ​“Governor Kasich act­ed in the inter­ests of fair­ness and jus­tice by rec­og­niz­ing that Mr. Tibbetts’ death sen­tence was fun­da­men­tal­ly unre­li­able. The jury was deprived of cru­cial infor­ma­tion about the abu­sive and trau­mat­ic upbring­ing and the long-term impact it had on Mr. Tibbetts and his sib­lings. These cir­cum­stances pro­vid­ed com­pelling rea­sons for the exer­cise of clemen­cy to cor­rect the fail­ures in the legal process in this case.” 

Kasich also grant­ed a reprieve to Ohio death-row pris­on­er Cleveland Jackson, push­ing back his exe­cu­tion by nine months to ​“allow his new­ly appoint­ed legal coun­sel suf­fi­cient time to review the case and prop­er­ly pre­pare for his clemen­cy hear­ing before the Parole Board.” Jackson’s September 13 exe­cu­tion is now resched­uled for May 29, 2019.

Tibbetts’s com­mu­ta­tion is the third in the United States in 2018 and the sec­ond in Ohio. On February 22, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott com­mut­ed Thomas Whitaker’s sen­tence to life in prison, and on March 26, Gov. Kasich grant­ed a com­mu­ta­tion to William Montgomery.