COLUMBUS, Ohio – Governor John Kasich has rejected clemency for a condemned Cleveland killer despite a prosecutor’s rare plea to commute his sentence to life without parole.
Kasich announced his decision Wednesday not to grant mercy to death row inmate Billy Slagle in his neighbor’s 1987 stabbing death.
Attorneys for Slagle, who is now 44, had long argued he deserved clemency because he was just 18 at the time of the slaying and already a drug addict and alcoholic with a chaotic upbringing.
Slagle is scheduled to be executed August 7 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty had changed his office’s approach to capital punishment and says he doubts it could obtain a death sentence for Slagle under today’s laws.
Friends of victim Mari Anne Pope say sparing Slagle would have dishonored the jury’s sentence.
On July 16, the Ohio Parole Board recommended against clemency by a 6-4 vote.