Ohio Governor John Kasich (pictured, left) has granted a reprieve to Raymond Tibbetts (pictured, right), temporarily halting his execution to permit the Ohio Parole Board to consider a juror’s plea for mercy in the case. In a February 8 letter to parole board Chairman Andre Imbrogno, the Governor requested that the Board convene a hearing to consider concerns about the case raised by Ross Geiger, one of the Tibbetts jurors. To facilitate that review, Kasich issued a temporary reprieve of Tibbetts’s execution, rescheduling it from February 13 to October 17, 2018, “unless further reprieve or clemency is granted.” On January 30, Kasich received a letter from Geiger alerting the Governor to Geiger’s “deep concerns about the trial and the way it transpired.” Geiger said the jury had never been given critical information from witnesses and institutional records that detailed Tibbetts’s brutal upbringing, abandonment, and abuse in the foster care system and that “prosecutors got it wrong if not lied” to the jury about Tibbetts’s siblings having overcome that abuse to live normal lives. Geiger told the Governor “that the system was and seems to be today very flawed in this case.” He said, “if I had known all the facts, 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.” In the Governor’s letter to the Board, Kasich wrote: “Mr. Geiger claims that had he known then all of the information presented at Inmate Tibbetts’ 2017 clemency hearing, including the testimony of Inmate Tibbett’s sister, he would not have voted to recommend death back in 1997. Since this letter was received by me after the board’s hearing and vote on Inmate Tibbetts’ case, I would like the board to review his case in light of this new information.” In a statement, Tibbetts’s attorney, Erin Barnhart, said that Geiger’s letter provided “incontrovertible proof that Mr. Tibbetts never would have ended up on death row had the system functioned properly” in his case. She praised Kasich for “act[ing] in the interests of fairness and justice” and said the Governor “has done our State a great service today by ensuring that careful consideration is given” to the new information from Geiger. Barnhart said the defense was “confident” that after considering Geiger’s concerns, “the Board and the Governor will agree that clemency is appropriate to correct the failures in the legal process in this case.”
(Andrew Welsch-Huggins, Ohio Governor Delays Killer’s Execution Over Juror Concerns, Associated Press, February 8, 2018; Jackie Borchardt, Ohio governor delays execution of Raymond Tibbetts due to juror’s concerns, Cleveland Plain Dealer (Cleveland.com), February 8, 2018; Marty Schladen, Kasich issues temporary reprieve for condemned killer, Columbus Dispatch, February 8, 2018.) Read the Warrant of Reprieve here and Governor Kasich’s letter to the parole board here. See Clemency.
