Split parole board rejects mercy for Ohio killer

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

AP Legal Affairs Writer

COLUMBUS — The pros­e­cu­tor who charged John Eley with a cap­i­tal crime and a judge who sen­tenced him to death both want the killer of a Youngstown con­ve­nience store owner spared, say­ing he doesn’t deserve a death sentence.

Their unusual sup­port was not enough to sway the Ohio Parole Board, which voted 5–3 Wednes­day in a rare split deci­sion to rec­om­mend against clemency for Eley.

Eley, 63, is sched­uled to die July 26 for the 1986 killing of store owner Ihsan Aydah. Gov. John Kasich has the final say on mercy.

Eley refused to tes­tify against his alleged con­spir­a­tor, Melvin Green, in exchange for a deal that would have removed the death penalty. Green, who was acquit­ted in a sep­a­rate trial, was con­sid­ered the mas­ter­mind of the crime by investigators.

Oppo­si­tion to Eley’s exe­cu­tion from the pros­e­cu­tor and the judge, as well as the detec­tive who inves­ti­gated the crime, don’t out­weigh the nature of the crime, accord­ing to the five board mem­bers who rejected clemency.

The sup­port­ers’ asser­tions “do not out­weigh the fact that Eley took the gun from Green, entered the store with the intent to rob the vic­tim, knew that the vic­tim had a gun and might try to use it, and then shot him in the head,” the board said.

The board also rejected claims by Eley’s lawyers that he is men­tally ill and men­tally disabled.

It’s not unusual for judges or pros­e­cu­tors to change their mind about indi­vid­ual cases or the death penalty itself, but on-the-record tes­ti­mony on behalf of a con­demned inmate is rel­a­tively rare.

The three board mem­bers who sup­ported Eley’s plea for mercy say he is not the “worst of the worst” killers, and argue that many sim­i­lar con­ve­nience store rob­bers who com­mit­ted more seri­ous crimes escaped death sentences.

They also said the crime wouldn’t have hap­pened with­out Green. And they argued that Eley was a vic­tim of a game of bluff by pros­e­cu­tors as they threat­ened him with a death sen­tence to force his tes­ti­mony against Green.

“The pros­e­cu­tors ‘played a bluff’ all the way to the end, and when Eley did not coop­er­ate, they were stuck with the death penalty con­vic­tion,” the three dis­sent­ing mem­bers said.

For­mer Mahon­ing County pros­e­cu­tor Gary Van Brock­lin told the board that Green set up the entire rob­bery. For­mer Mahon­ing County judge Peter Econo­mus — now a fed­eral judge — said if defense attor­neys had pre­sented more rea­sons why Eley should have been spared, he wouldn’t have voted in favor of a death sentence.

Clemency “should be granted for Mr. Eley in this case,” Econo­mus wrote to both the parole board and Kasich on June 7.

“Frankly, I am sur­prised that his death sen­tence was not mod­i­fied by the courts who have reviewed this case over the years.”

Board mem­bers opposed to clemency rejected Econo­mus’ argu­ment, say­ing sev­eral courts have pre­vi­ously ruled that fac­tors that could have been pre­sented to the jury about Eley but weren’t — such as the effect of a head injury in ear­lier life on his behav­ior — wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

Green, 54, is in prison and sched­uled for release in Octo­ber on charges he ille­gally car­ried a con­cealed weapon, had a gun in a car and pos­ses­sion of drugs. But he also faces the pos­si­bil­ity of addi­tional time for vio­lat­ing parole on a prior aggra­vated rob­bery con­vic­tion, accord­ing to state prison records. Those charges are unre­lated to the Eley case.

Posted by AP News on Jun 20 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.