UPDATE: (Dec. 17). Gov. Kasich grant­ed clemen­cy to Ronald Post, fol­low­ing the Parole Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion. On December 14, the Ohio Parole Board (5 – 3) rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for death row inmate Ronald Post, say­ing his legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion was inef­fec­tive and did not meet expec­ta­tions for a death penal­ty case. Post is cur­rent­ly sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on January 16, 2013. The Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion con­clud­ed: “[A] major­i­ty of the mem­bers of the Board find it impos­si­ble to over­look the glar­ing omis­sions, missed oppor­tu­ni­ties, and ques­tion­able tac­ti­cal deci­sions made by Post’s sev­er­al attor­neys. The var­i­ous defi­cien­cies in Post’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion, viewed in total­i­ty, call into ques­tion whether Post’s death sen­tence was imposed through the kind of just and cred­i­ble process called for by a pun­ish­ment of this mag­ni­tude.” His lawyers issued a state­ment, say­ing, ​“In the near­ly 30 years since his case began, Ronald Post has too often been failed by the attor­neys assigned to rep­re­sent him, begin­ning at his tri­al.” Post’s orig­i­nal attor­ney advised him to plead no con­test to the charges against him, with the expec­ta­tion that he would receive a life sen­tence. Instead, Post was sen­tenced to death. Despite his plea, Post has main­tained his inno­cence, and there was evi­dence of oth­er sus­pects involved in the crime. The final clemen­cy deci­sion is up to Gov. John Kasich. 

(A. Welsh-Huggins, ​“Parole board: Spare obese con­demned Ohio killer Ronald Post,” Associated Press; Ohio Death Penalty Clemency Report, December 14, 2012). See Clemency and Representation.

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