A juror who served on the cap­i­tal mur­der tri­al of Raymond Tibbetts (pic­tured) and vot­ed to sen­tence Tibbetts to death has writ­ten to Ohio Governor John Kasich ask­ing Kasich to halt Tibbetts’s sched­uled February 13 exe­cu­tion and com­mute his sen­tence to life with­out parole. In a January 30 let­ter to Governor Kasich, juror Ross Geiger — who, at the time of tri­al, described him­self as a con­ser­v­a­tive Republican — said after learn­ing the ​“tru­ly ter­ri­ble con­di­tions” in which Tibbetts was brought up and the role the pre­scrip­tion of opi­oid painkillers played in the mur­der, he had ​“deep con­cerns about the tri­al and the way it tran­spired.” Geiger told the Governor ​“that the sys­tem was and seems to be today very flawed in this case” and that, “[b]ased on what I know today, I would not have rec­om­mend­ed the death penal­ty.” Geiger became inter­est­ed in the sta­tus of Tibbetts’s case after read­ing a recent news sto­ry about a chal­lenge to Ohio’s method of exe­cu­tion. Researching on his own, he learned of Tibbetts’s pend­ing exe­cu­tion and saw links to the clemen­cy mate­ri­als filed in the case. ​“Imagine my anger,” he wrote, ​“when I was able to review the clemen­cy [mate­ri­als]” and found “[p]ages of rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion” that were nev­er pro­vid­ed to the jury detail­ing ​“the aban­don­ment, fos­ter abuse, and rea­ban­don­ment” that Tibbetts had expe­ri­enced ​“and that it began before Tibbets was even two years old.” At tri­al, Tibbetts’s lawyer pre­sent­ed a psy­chi­a­trist who pro­vid­ed anec­do­tal tes­ti­mo­ny about Tibbetts’s back­ground, but pro­vid­ed the jury with no social ser­vice records or fam­i­ly wit­ness­es sup­port­ing that tes­ti­mo­ny. Prosecutors, Geiger said, ​“dis­man­tled” the defense evi­dence by argu­ing that ​“lots of peo­ple with trou­bled child­hoods do not become mur­der­ers [and] strong­ly impl[ying] that Tibbets [sic] sib­lings turned out fine.” Geiger said his mind was changed when he learned of defense counsel’s inep­ti­tude, that the defense had nev­er asked Tibbetts’s sis­ter to tes­ti­fy, and what he called “[t]he rev­e­la­tion that the pros­e­cu­tors got it wrong if not lied about Tibbets [sic] sib­lings hav­ing nor­mal lives.” Geiger said he was shocked to learn about the bru­tal con­di­tions in the fos­ter home in which Tibbetts and his broth­ers lived, includ­ing being tied to a bed, thrown down stairs, hav­ing their fin­gers burned and beat­en, and not being fed prop­er­ly. ​“In fact,” Gieger wrote in an op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dearer, ​“of Mr. Tibbetts’ four sib­lings, one com­mit­ted sui­cide, one also spent time in prison, one is essen­tial­ly home­less and unem­ployed, and only his sis­ter is now doing well, despite hav­ing had a very tur­bu­lent younger life.” Also sup­port­ing his plea for mer­cy, Geiger said that he and his fel­low jurors did know that Tibbetts had a his­to­ry of drug abuse and they were ​“not aware of the very real prob­lem of pre­scrib­ing opi­oids to peo­ple with addic­tive behav­iors.” Tibbetts nev­er received men­tal health treat­ment for his trau­mat­ic child­hood and turned to alco­hol and drugs to dull the pain. Although he repeat­ed­ly tried to com­bat his addic­tion, and for sev­er­al years seemed to have his life under con­trol, he then suf­fered an on-the-job back injury, for which he was pre­scribed an opi­oid painkiller, caus­ing him to relapse into addic­tion. In the months lead­ing up to the crime, Tibbetts attempt­ed sui­cide and tried to get into a treat­ment pro­gram, but was turned down. Tibbetts killed two peo­ple after a crack-relat­ed argu­ment. Geiger told Associated Press that, at the time of tri­al, he believed the law required him to vote for death based on the evi­dence the jury had heard and that he now feels ​“duped by the sys­tem.” He said, ​“The state asked me to car­ry the respon­si­bil­i­ty for such a deci­sion but with­held infor­ma­tion from me that was impor­tant.” Ohio pros­e­cu­tors oppose clemen­cy for Tibbetts, say­ing that his mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence does not out­weigh the cir­cum­stances of the crime. 

In 2017, Governors issued three grants of clemen­cy, com­mut­ing death sen­tences to sen­tences of life with­out parole. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe grant­ed clemen­cy to Ivan Teleguz based on false tes­ti­mo­ny pre­sent­ed by pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es in sup­port of aggra­vat­ing fac­tors in his case and to Williams Burns based upon his severe men­tal ill­ness. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson com­mut­ed the death sen­tence imposed on Jason McGehee based, in part, on evi­dence his jury nev­er heard that McGehee had been the vic­tim of severe abuse and neglect as a child that led him to use drugs and alco­hol and that he been diag­nosed with a mental illness.

(Ross Allen Geiger, Guest col­umn, As a juror who vot­ed for death in Ray Tibbetts’ tri­al, I can attest we vot­ed with­out the key facts, Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 5, 2018; Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Ohio juror vot­ed for death 20 years ago, now seeks mer­cy, Associated Press, February 5, 2018; Leo Beletsky, Column: Death penal­ty unjust for opi­oid addict, Columbus Dispatch, February 4, 2018; Nick Swartsell, Former Tibbetts Juror: Commute Convicted Killer’s Sentence, City Beat, February 2, 2018.) Read Letter from Juror Ross Geiger to Governor Kasich. See Clemency.

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