COLUMBUS — An attorney for a convicted killer spared from execution by Gov. John Kasich says they’re grateful for the governor’s decision and will continue to pursue a “new and fair” trial.
The decision by the Republican governor Monday followed a recommendation the Ohio Parole Board in favor of clemency for death row inmate William Montgomery.
Kasich says he commuted Montgomery’s sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
The parole board voted 6-4 that life without parole was a more appropriate sentence, “after serious questions arose following sentencing about the integrity of the trial court process,” Kasich wrote in a statement issued by his office Monday.
Montgomery was sentenced to die April 11 for the 1986 shooting of Debra Ogle and her roommate during a robbery in the Toledo area.
Montgomery’s attorneys argued there were too much doubt and uncertainty about the case and that prosecutors withheld evidence at trial that could have changed the result.
A message left with the Lucas County prosecutor wasn’t immediately returned.