More Questions in Ohio's Kevin Keith Case

"New evidence in Crawford Co. murder case should be studied," is th editorial in today's Mansfield News Journal.

The Ohio Supreme Court should look again at the case against Kevin Keith -- not just the legal procedures, but the evidence -- before Keith is put to death for crimes he may not have committed.

Former Crestliner Kevin Keith, 45, is on death row for allegedly spraying a Bucyrus apartment with gunfire and killing 24-year-old Marichell Chatman, her 4-year-old daughter Marchae Chatman and Marchae's aunt Linda Chatman, 39, in February 1994.

Last week, the Ohio Innocence Project raised questions about Keith's guilt based on evidence that was not available to the defense at the time of Keith's trial three months after the murders. Keith has exhausted his regular state and federal appeals, losing his argument of innocence in lower courts. He has now asked the Ohio Supreme Court to consider his claim he was not the shooter.

The Ohio Innocence Project, a nonprofit program run through the University of Cincinnati College of Law, fights to free inmates convicted of crimes they didn't commit. The program relies on DNA technology and other evidence to cast doubt and overturn convictions. The program rejects almost half of the requests for help it receives, and will not advocate for an inmate "unless we really believe they are innocent," says academic director Jenny Carroll.

The Project helped free Clarence Elkins, a Mansfield Correctional Institution inmate, in 2005, six years after the Magnolia-area man was wrongly convicted of raping and murdering his mother-in-law and raping and assaulting a 6-year-old niece.

We don't know if Keith is guilty of the 1994 killings. We do know that some of the evidence now available raises doubt. The time to re-examine the facts of the case is now, before Keith is led to a gurney to receive an injection that will stop his heart.

Earlier coverage of this case is here.