Ohio Governor Grants Reprieve to Raymond Tibbetts Following Juror’s Call for Mercy

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.