Ohio Parole Board Recommends Commutation of Death Sentence for Tyrone Noling Following Rare Opportunity for Hearing

On August 25, 2026, the Ohio Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed, fol­low­ing a full clemen­cy hear­ing a week ear­li­er, that Governor Mike DeWine grant death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Tyrone Noling a com­mu­ta­tion and parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty begin­ning January 1, 2029. Mr. Noling had asked the parole board for a full par­don, but the board, in a split vote, instead rec­om­mend­ed a sen­tence com­mu­ta­tion and parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty. Mr. Noling has spent 30 years on Ohio’s death row for the mur­ders of an elder­ly cou­ple but has always main­tained his inno­cence. Mr. Noling and his coun­sel allege that his 1996 con­vic­tion was the result of a coerced con­fes­sion, offi­cial mis­con­duct, and false testimony.

The board’s rec­om­men­da­tion now goes to Gov. Mike DeWine, who has the author­i­ty to grant clemen­cy in Ohio. He has sev­er­al choic­es: he can accept the board’s rec­om­men­da­tion, grant a full par­don, reduce Mr. Noling’s sen­tence in some oth­er way, or reject the rec­om­men­da­tion and leave the death sen­tence in place. One mem­ber of the eight-per­son board rec­om­mend­ed a full par­don, five mem­bers vot­ed for com­mu­ta­tion, and two vot­ed against any relief. The major­i­ty agreed that Gov. DeWine should grant Mr. Noling clemen­cy, though they wrote in their report that Mr. Noling should com­plete addi­tion­al pro­gram­ming before his release, estab­lish­ing January 2029 as the first oppor­tu­ni­ty for parole.

With the assis­tance of the Ohio Innocence Project, Mr. Noling’s legal team has spent years assem­bling evi­dence they say points away from him and instead to two alter­na­tive sus­pects the police failed to ade­quate­ly inves­ti­gate. Central to that evi­dence is a cig­a­rette butt recov­ered from the crime scene. Defense attor­neys say DNA test­ing con­duct­ed at the time did not con­nect the cig­a­rette to Mr. Noling nor any of his code­fen­dants, but that a 1991 blood-typ­ing report, which was nev­er dis­closed to Mr. Noling’s tri­al coun­sel, sug­gest­ed the cig­a­rette con­tained the DNA of Dan Wilson, who was exe­cut­ed by Ohio in 2009 for an unre­lat­ed mur­der. Mr. Noling’s attor­neys have said a man told author­i­ties that Mr. Wilson bragged about com­mit­ting the mur­ders that Mr. Noling was con­vict­ed of committing.

Mr. Noling’s push for a full par­don drew sup­port from a diverse group of peo­ple. Former Portage County Sheriff Ken Howe, now in his 80s, tes­ti­fied on Mr. Noling’s behalf at the August 18 clemen­cy hear­ing, and told the Associated Press that accu­mu­lat­ed evi­dence has now con­vinced him that Mr. Noling and his code­fen­dants were wrong­ly impli­cat­ed in the mur­ders. A juror from Mr. Noling’s tri­al also tes­ti­fied at the parole board hear­ing, telling the mem­bers that after see­ing the new evi­dence, she believes he is inno­cent and would not have con­vict­ed him had this infor­ma­tion been pre­sent­ed at tri­al. Mr. Noling’s case has been fea­tured in doc­u­men­taries and true-crime pod­casts and has also attract­ed pub­lic sup­port from celebrities.

The August 18 hear­ing was the first clemen­cy hear­ing grant­ed to an Ohio death row pris­on­er since 2020 — and is par­tic­u­lar­ly notable because death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers do not typ­i­cal­ly receive clemen­cy hear­ings until an exe­cu­tion date is set. In June 2026, Gov. DeWine issued his first grant of clemen­cy in a death penal­ty case, reduc­ing Gregory Lott​’s death sen­tence to life with­out parole. Mr. Lott was sen­tenced to death in 1987, and in 2020, the Ohio Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy by a 6 – 2 vote.

Mr. Noling was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1990 mur­ders of an elder­ly cou­ple. He was 18 years old at the time the crime occurred, and accord­ing to pros­e­cu­tors, one of a group of teenagers who had com­mit­ted a string of rob­beries tar­get­ing elder­ly cou­ples in the area. No phys­i­cal evi­dence ever tied Mr. Noling to the killings, and the mur­der weapon was nev­er recov­ered. His con­vic­tion rest­ed heav­i­ly on tes­ti­mo­ny from three oth­er teenagers in his group, who were 14, 15, and 16 years old at the time, all of whom received com­plete immu­ni­ty or no addi­tion­al jail time. All three lat­er recant­ed, say­ing police pres­sured them into nam­ing Mr. Noling as the shooter.