That's the title of the news release issued by Governor John Kasich. Here's the full text:
Gov. John R. Kasich has denied a request for executive clemency from Billy Slagle, who in 1988 was convicted of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery of Mari Anne Pope in Cuyahoga County.
Slagle is scheduled to be executed on August 7 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. On July 16, 2013, the Ohio Parole Board recommended against clemency for Slagle by a vote of 6-4.
"Ohio Gov.: No Clemency Despite DA's Plea," is Andrew Welsh-Huggins' AP coverage, via ABC News.
The governor rejected clemency Wednesday for a condemned Cleveland killer who stabbed his victim 17 times, overruling a rare plea for mercy from the prosecutor overseeing his case and support from nearly half of a parole board that previously voted unanimously against the inmate.
Gov. John Kasich's decision left death row prisoner Billy Slagle with few options before his Aug. 7 execution date for killing neighbor Mari Anne Pope in a 1987 burglary while two children she was watching were home.
Kasich followed the recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board, which voted 6-4 last week to turn down Slagle's request for clemency. As is his custom, Kasich didn't explain his decision in his statement.
The entire board ruled against mercy two years ago for Slagle, but that was before the election of new Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty and a change in his office's approach to capital punishment.
McGinty, who is applying new criteria to both old and new death penalty cases, has said he doesn't believe his office could obtain a death sentence for Slagle today. McGinty pushed for life without parole, arguing that without that option in 1987, jurors trying to ensure that Slagle would never go free chose the only option before them: a death sentence.
And:
Attorneys for Slagle, 44, long argued his sentence should be commuted to life without parole, citing his age — at 18, he was the minimum age for execution in Ohio when the crime happened — and a long history of drug and alcohol abuse.
"Billy was exposed to alcohol from the womb to the crime," Joe Wilhelm, a federal public defender, said at a July 8 hearing.
Earlier coverage of Billy Slagle's case begins at the link; also available, unrelated Ohio news coverage. Related posts are in the clemency index.
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