Ohio Board Backs Sparing Death Row Inmate

The Ohio Parole Board recommended Tuesday that Tyrone Noling, who has spent 30 years on death row for a double murder he says he did not commit, have his sentence commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole as early as 2029.

Noling, 54, had asked the board a week earlier for a full pardon, not a commutation.

The decision now sits with Gov. Mike DeWine, an outgoing Republican who can pardon Noling, cut his sentence, or issue a stay. Noling has no execution date.

The Evidence He Cites

The three teenagers whose testimony convicted Noling later retracted their statements, saying police pressured them to name him as the shooter.

Ohio Innocence Project lawyers say they uncovered law enforcement notes pointing to three other potential suspects, including Wilson. In court filings they wrote that Noling's original trial team did not know Wilson's foster brother had told police Wilson bragged about killing the Hartigs.

DNA testing on the cigarette butt from the driveway placed neither Noling nor the three other teenagers at the scene. His trial lawyers were also unaware of a June 1991 blood-typing lab report concluding the cigarette could have been smoked by someone like Wilson.

Prosecutors have insisted Noling is an unrepentant killer who gunned down the Hartigs during the robbery spree.