Keith's clemency hearing: Supporters fight to keep death row inmate alive.
A panel recommended today that Gov. Ted Strickland not spare the life of a man convicted of murdering three people in Bucyrus in 1994 in a case that has drawn national attention.
In a unanimous vote, the Ohio Parole Board said the state should proceed with plans to execute Kevin Keith, now 46, on Sept. 15.
Keith has been on death row for the triple murder of family members of a drug informant who had told police about his involvement in cocaine trafficking in Crawford County.
Strickland has discretion on whether to follow the Parole Board's recommendation or ignore it. The governor has publicly called Keith's case "troubling."
Keith's defense has attracted national attention, with his supporters saying the state is about to execute an innocent man. The head of the national Innocence Project attended a 12-hour Parole Board hearing on Keith's case last week; former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro also has raised doubts about Keith's guilt.
Keith has maintained that he was not the gunman on a snowy February night in Bucyrus when 24-year-old Marichell Chatman; her 4-year-old daughter, Marchae; and the girl's 39-year-old aunt, Linda Chatman, were killed in a melee of gunfire that wounded 3 others.
Marichell Chatman was the sister of a confidential police informant who had tipped off authorities about a cocaine-trafficking ring in which Keith was a leader.
Keith's attorneys told the Parole Board last week that evidence points to another killer, Rodney Melton. Now 54, Melton had been indicted on a felony drug-trafficking charge after a tipster alerted police about his alleged involvement in a series of pharmacy robberies and drug sales. The indictment was later dismissed.
Melton, who had an extensive criminal history, was known to use a face mask similar to one seen on the Bucyrus gunman.
Officials in the Crawford County prosecutor's office and the attorney general's office noted that Melton was related to the Chatmans and that he later showed up at the scene of the murders, unusual behavior for a killer. In addition, they said the informant who tipped off police about Melton was not the same person who told authorities about Keith.
Melton had threatened to "cripple" the person who led police to him.
Source: Columbus Dispatch, August 19, 2010
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