he was convicted of the murders in May 1994 and sentenced to death, mainly on eyewitness testimony

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/08/copy/timeout-from-death.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

Timeout from death?

Questions in the case of a man heading toward execution prompt calls for a review of Death Row cases - and a possible moratorium.

Sunday, August 8, 2010 02:59 AM
By Mike Wagner and Alan Johnson

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

<snip>Reasonable doubt?


On Feb. 13, 1994, prosecutors say Kevin Keith walked into a small apartment in Bucyrus, about 60 miles north of Columbus, and riddled it with gunfire, killing three people and wounding three others. snip

Some of the discrepancies cited by Troutman in the case include:

• Warren testified that a man named "Kevin" shot him and he also picked Keith out of a police photo lineup. But he told four witnesses near the crime scene that he didn't know who shot him. Later, an officer called Warren at Grant Medical Center in Columbus and gave him the names of four Kevins. The officer said Warren was 75percent sure Keith was the last name of the shooter. However, Keith's attorneys say the call was made on an unrecorded line.

• Police were able to provide an array of "Kevin" names to Warren after they say a nurse named Amy Gimmets, who allegedly treated Warren, called them from the hospital. Gimmets told them that when Warren removed a tube from his throat, he said a man named "Kevin" was the shooter. But Keith's attorneys say their investigation shows that Amy Gimmets doesn't exist. They say there are no records of her at the hospital, the state nursing board or anywhere in Ohio. Another nurse named Amy Whisman, who did treat Warren, signed a 2007 affidavit saying, "I did not ask Richard Warren for the name of the person who shot him, and Richard Warren never told me the name."

• New evidence bolsters the theory presented at Keith's trial that there was another suspect. The person was a suspect in a series of pharmacy burglaries around the time of the shooting. Keith's attorneys discovered documents from an Ohio Pharmacy Board investigator who was looking into the burglaries. Within his records, the other suspect said before the shootings that he had been paid $15,000 to "cripple" the informant.

• The photo lineup presented to witnesses by police was biased against Keith. His attorneys say his face was larger than the others and none of the other five men resembled Keith.

• A witness saw a car get stuck in snow and flee the scene the night of the murders. Prosecutors alleged that Keith's getaway car left a partial imprint of a license plate with the numbers "043" in the snow. Keith's attorneys say the alternative suspect's car had the same three numbers on its license plate. They also say the description of the car given by the witness - "light cream, white or light yellow," doesn't match the car police say Keith used.

Contrary to what many people think, it's not about justice, it's about winning cases. Prosecutors don't want to be prosecutors forever. NO, they have to build their resumes so one day they can hit it big on the public dole and become politicians.

K/R