Please sign this petition: Innocent Man on Ohio's Death Row

Please pass this on and do anything else you can and will possibly do! Thank you!


Information about this:

http://www.kevinkeith.org /


To sign the Petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/relief_urgently_needed_for_innocent_man_on_ohios_death_row

Petition Text:

Clemency For Kevin Keith

Hello,

The State of Ohio is poised to execute Kevin Keith on September 15, 2010, in spite of overwhelming evidence supporting what Mr. Keith has maintained from the time of his arrest – he is actually innocent, wrongfully convicted of a crime based on faulty eyewitness identification.

Mr. Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by four witnesses.

The Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts all support relief for Mr. Keith.

I urgently appeal to the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith to prevent the State of Ohio from doing the intolerable: putting a man to death for a crime he did not commit.

-snip- (more at petition link)

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Further information from the website at the above link:

An Innocent Man on Ohio's Death Row

Kevin Keith is an innocent man on Ohio’s death row, wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit based on faulty eyewitness identification – the leading cause of wrongful convictions nationwide. He has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by four witnesses. There is no forensic evidence that conclusively links him to the crime. Mr. Keith is scheduled to be executed on September 15, 2010.

In 2007, after all of his allotted appeals were exhausted, new counsel took on Mr. Keith’s case. Upon investigating, counsel discovered new evidence for Mr. Keith that supported what Mr. Keith was saying from day one – he is actually innocent.

Prominent supporters from around the country have filed supporting briefs and urged review in Mr. Keith's case, including the National Innocence Network, an affiliation of over 50 innocence projects and legal organizations around the country, the Ohio Innocence Project, an organization that typically only works on non-death penalty cases involving DNA evidence, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts.

New evidence discovered by counsel for Mr. Keith discredits the eyewitness identification used to convict Mr. Keith. New evidence also identifies an alternative suspect who made a before-the-fact admission that he planned to commit the crime for which Mr. Keith stands to be executed.

-snip- (more at site link)

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Please sign, and please pass this on.

Thank you.


solidarity

spread the word!!

solidarity!

SHAW, J. Defendant-appellant, Kevin Keith, appeals from a judgment of conviction and sentence of death rendered upon a jury verdict and recommendation in the Crawford County Court of Common Pleas for the aggravated murder of Marichell Chatman, Marchae Chatman and Linda Chatman. Defendant also <*2> appeals the judgment of conviction and sentence of seven to twenty-five years incarceration on each of three counts of the attempted aggravated murder of Richard Warren, Quanita Reeves and Quinton Reeves.

On the night of February 13, 1994, defendant arrived at the apartment of Marichell Chatman located at 1712-B, Bucyrus Estates Apartments, Marion Road in Bucyrus, Ohio. Marichell Chatman lived at that apartment with her seven yearold daughter Marchae Chatman and Richard Warren. Present that night at the apartment were Marichell Chatman, Marchae Chatman, Richard Warren and Marichell Chatman's aunt Linda Chatman. In addition, seven year-old Quanita Reeves and four year-old Quinton Reeves, who are Marichell Chatman's cousins' children were present in the apartment. The events which took place inside the apartment following defendant's arrival were subsequently described in the trial testimony of Richard Warren.

When defendant arrived at the door of the apartment, he asked Linda Chatman to come outside so that he could speak with her. Linda Chatman obliged and she briefly left the apartment to speak with defendant. While defendant and Chatman were outside the apartment, Richard Warren <*3> was told by Marichell Chatman that the name of the man who came to the door was Kevin. Warren did not recall Kevin's last name but Marichell also told him that Kevin had been involved in a big drug bust.

While defendant and Chatman were talking outside the apartment, Warren sat on a couch watching television. Shortly thereafter, Linda Chatman and defendant re-entered the apartment. When defendant re-entered the apartment, he had what appeared to be a turtleneck shirt pulled over the bottom part of his face and was holding a green garbage bag in his hand. Defendant asked Marichell for a glass of water and as he was drinking it, he made small talk with Warren regarding the weather and the basketball game which was on television. Defendant then reached into the garbage bag and pulled out what appeared to be a nine millimeter handgun. Defendant then loaded the gun and ordered everyone in the apartment to lay down on the floor.

While the occupants of the apartment laid down on the floor, Marichell Chatman asked defendant "what are you doing?" "why are you doing this?" and stated something to the effect of "we didn't have anything, you know, Kevin, we didn't do anything." Defendant replied <*4> "don't say my name, don't say my name." Marichell Chatman then stated "well, you don't hurt us, you ain't going to hurt us while the children are here. I don't want anything to happen to those children." Defendant then stated "what the fuck would I do that for" and put the gun to Marichell Chatman's head and told her to "shut up."

Following some additional words between defendant and Marichell Chatman, defendant stated "well, you should have thought of this before your brother started ratting on people." Marichell Chatman responded to defendant by stating "well, my brother didn't rat on anybody and even if he did we didn't have anything to do with it." 1 At that point defendant continued to hold the gun to Marichell Chatman's head and Warren heard the gun discharge.


FOOTNOTES

1 Testimony at trial later indicated that Marichell Chatman's brother Rudell Chatman worked as an informant for the Galion Police Department and had provided information leading to indictments for drug trafficking against defendant in a separate proceeding.



<*5> After defendant shot Marichell Chatman, defendant also shot Warren once in the jaw and twice in the back. Warren then heard defendant fire the gun an estimated ten to twelve additional times before leaving the apartment. When defendant left the apartment, Warren ran out of the apartment heading across a field in the direction of the adjacent Ike's Restaurant, yelling for help. However, while he was running from the apartment, Warren heard an additional four or five gun shots, one of which struck him in the buttocks, knocking him to the ground. Despite sustaining four gunshot wounds, Warren managed to get up and proceed to the restaurant for help.

Police and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene of the shooting shortly after Warren arrived at Ike's Restaurant. When authorities arrived at the apartment, Linda Chatman was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and body. Seven year-old Marchae Chatman was found with two gunshot wounds to the back and although alive at the scene, she died shortly thereafter en route to the hospital. Marichell Chatman was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds to the body and two gunshot wounds to the neck. Quanita Reeves and <*6> Quinton Reeves along with Richard Warren all sustained multiple gunshot wounds and survived the shooting with serious injuries.

In the hours following the shootings, police officers collected various items of evidence from the Chatman apartment as well as from the area surrounding the apartment building. Two of the items retrieved included partial tire and license plate imprints which were collected from a snow bank outside of the apartment building. The license plate imprint revealed the numbers "043" which matched the last three numbers of a 1982 Oldsmobile Omega vehicle which was later found to be operated by Melanie Davidson, who visited defendant in jail approximately three weeks after the murders.

At trial, in addition to the testimony of Richard Warren, Nancy Smathers, who also lived at the Bucyrus Estates apartments, testified that on the night of the murders she heard popping sounds and then saw defendant run from the building where the murders took place. Smathers further testified that she witnessed defendant enter a light colored mid-sized vehicle, similar to the one operated by Melanie Davidson, and that as defendant attempted to exit the parking lot at a high rate of <*7> speed, he hit a snow bank. Smathers stated that after the car hit the snow bank, it rocked back and forth in the snow bank for approximately five minutes in an attempt to get free. In addition to the physical evidence recovered from the scene and the positive identification of the defendant by witness Nancy Smathers, Richard Warren also provided a positive identification of defendant through a photographic line-up and identification in open court. ****
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After noting the facts of the case, the Court of Appeals addressed the specific legal issues.

This was Crawford Co. case no. 3-94-14 in the 3rd District.

evidence? Have you read it?