Ohio Supreme Court Considers DNA Testing in Death Row Case

Over 15 years after a Portage County, Ohio man was convicted of murdering an elderly couple and sentenced to death, the state’s high court considered whether to grant DNA testing on evidence found near the scene, Tuesday. Two previous requests for a new round of testing were denied by the Portage County Common Pleas Court.

 


Ohio Innocence Project

attorney Carrie Wood requested advanced DNA testing on a cigarette butt found at the scene of the 1990 crime that already excluded her client Tyrone Noling. Wood argued that the Ohio legislature enacted a law in 2010 to allow for retesting of biological evidence if the defendant can show that advances in DNA testing could disclose new evidence. The Columbus

Post-Dispatch

reports:

“Tyrone Noling is innocent and is sitting on death row,” said Carrie Wood, an attorney for Noling, after the morning hearing. “He is entitled to this testing. At some point, the question becomes, why is the prosecutor fighting so hard to deny him this evidence?”

Noling was convicted based largely on eyewitness identification testimony by his three co-defendants, who have all since said that Noling is innocent and that they were pressured to testify falsely against him.

 

If the court rules in Noling’s favor, it will send the issue of DNA testing back to the lower court for consideration. Noling continues to serve his sentence at Chillicothe Correctional Institution where he awaits an execution date.

 

Read the

full article

.

 

Read more

about Noling from the Wrongful Convictions blog

.