P. Ken Howe served as sheriff of Portage County from 1989 to 1993.
The Ohio Parole Board on Aug. 25 recommended clemency for Tyrone Noling,who has spent 30 years on death row. I agree that Noling deserves clemency.
And because I also believe that Noling is innocent of the crime for which he stands wrongfully convicted, I urge Gov. Mike DeWine to grant him a full pardon.
Throughout my long career in law enforcement, my primary objective was to improve public safety. When a violent crime took place, protecting the public required thorough, professional law enforcement work to investigate the crime, identify the perpetrator, and collect accurate and reliable evidence to ensure a successful prosecution to put the right person behind bars.
At the same
time, I recognized that a commitment to public safety demands that when law enforcement makes a mistake, and a wrongful conviction results, we must take accountability and do everything possible to correct the error.
Egregious conduct landed Tyrone Noling on death row
In Tyrone Noling’s case, DeWine has the opportunity to take meaningful action to correct his wrongful conviction.
The evidence of Noling’s innocence is so overwhelming, and the official misconduct that put him on death row is so egregious. Therefore, only a full pardon will suffice. I should know. I was at the initial crime scene, and I am the sheriff who headed the office that worked on this case.
Noling was wrongfully sentenced to death in 1996 for the murders of Cora and Bearnhardt Hartig six years earlier in Portage County, where I was the sheriff.
No evidence suggested that Noling had anything to do with this crime, and my team did not believe he had anything to do with it.
The crime scene indicated the perpetrator was someone the Hartigs welcomed into their home and sat with at their kitchen table before things turned violent.
Tyrone Noling, who was just 18 years old in 1990, lived in another county and did not know the Hartigs.
Key testimony has been recanted testimony
It seems that after the murders sat unsolved for several years, pressure mounted on the district attorney’s office. I was surprised when they pointed to a group of teenagers who had been involved in a series of home invasions in another county during the spring of 1990, including Noling. I believed then—and have never seen anything to convince me otherwise—that it simply didn’t add up.
Nevertheless, three of Noling’s young co-defendants were coerced into testifying against him. At age 23, he was convicted and sentenced to death.
Since Noling’s trial, all of his co-defendants have recanted their testimony and described the coercive tactics used against them. No physical evidence has ever linked Noling to the crime scene.
Information also has emerged about significant exculpatory evidence the authorities withheld from Noling’s attorneys and the jury. At least one juror has spoken out about her fear that she helped put an innocent man on death row.
Chillingly, there is evidence pointing to more plausible suspects whose potential involvement appears to have gone uninvestigated.
One of them, a man named Dan Wilson, was living in a foster home near the Hartigs’ residence. He confessed to his foster brother that he killed the Hartigs. A cigarette butt found at the crime scene contains DNA that excludes Noling but does not exclude Wilson.
Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death for a horrific murder he committed in 1991, a year after the Hartigs were killed. Ohio has since executed him.
Gov. DeWine can right a wrong
Noling’s case illustrates how wrongful convictions undermine our entire system of justice.
Not only is an innocent person taken from their life and loved ones, but a guilty one escapes accountability and remains free to perpetrate further harm.
Victims and their families are led to believe they have received legal justice, when the opposite is true. For the public to retain trust in law enforcement and prosecutors, we must be willing to acknowledge and fix such miscarriages of justice.
For 30 years, courts and prosecutors have refused to take responsibility for the error in Noling’s case. But there is still hope.
DeWine finally has an opportunity to correct this egregious miscarriage of justice that has already cost Noling more than half his life. On Aug. 18, the Ohio Parole Board held a hearing on Noling’s clemency application.
A majority of the board agrees that Noling warrants relief, with one member recommending a full pardon and five others recommending that he be made eligible for parole in 2029.
Noling’s application is now before DeWine, who has the authority to grant him the full pardon justice requires.
Throughout DeWine’s career as a prosecutor and politician, he has served with the utmost integrity.
A full pardon for Noling would cement Gov. DeWine’s legacy of principled leadership, allowing an innocent man to go home at last.
P. Ken Howe served as sheriff of Portage County, Ohio, from 1989 to 1993.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: I was at the crime scene. Egregious misconduct landed Ohio man on death row | Sheriff
