Daijiworld Media Network - Ohio
Ohio, Aug 19: Tyrone Noling, who has spent nearly 30 years on death row for the 1990 murders of an elderly Ohio couple, appeared before the Ohio Parole Board on Tuesday seeking a full pardon and release from prison, maintaining that he did not commit the killings.
Noling, 54, of Alliance, presented a growing body of evidence with the support of the Ohio Innocence Project at a clemency hearing that could provide a crucial opportunity to challenge his conviction.
The evidence includes recanted testimony from witnesses, changed positions by the former county sheriff and one of the jurors who convicted him, as well as information pointing to another man who was later executed in Ohio as a possible perpetrator.
Noling's case has attracted widespread attention through documentaries and true-crime podcasts. Celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Hilarie Burton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have also publicly supported efforts to exonerate him.
Tuesday's hearing was the first clemency hearing for an Ohio death row inmate since 2020. Following the proceedings, the parole board will consider the evidence and make a recommendation to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who has the final authority to grant clemency.
DeWine, a Republican, called in June for the abolition of the death penalty, saying his position had changed because he no longer believed capital punishment served as a deterrent to violent crime.
Death row inmates in Ohio typically receive clemency hearings only after an execution date has been set. Noling does not currently have an execution date, making the hearing itself a significant development in his case.
Noling is seeking to be released from prison and has said he would not accept a commutation to life imprisonment without parole because he maintains that he was wrongly convicted.
He was convicted in connection with the April 5, 1990, killings of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, both 81, at their home in Atwater Township, Portage County.
A neighbour discovered the couple's bodies on the kitchen floor after noticing that their lawn mower had remained outside the house for several days. Bearnhardt Hartig had been shot three times and Cora Hartig five times with a .25-caliber automatic handgun. Their home had also been ransacked.
Authorities alleged that Noling, who had recently turned 18, was part of a group involved in burglaries targeting elderly couples. Three other members of the group, who were 14, 15 and 16 at the time, implicated Noling in the Hartig killings.
Those witnesses later recanted their statements, saying police had pressured them into identifying Noling as the shooter.
Initial aggravated burglary charges against Noling were dropped in 1992, but a grand jury indicted him again in 1995 on murder charges connected to the Hartig killings. He was sentenced to death in 1996.
No physical evidence directly linked Noling to the murders, and the murder weapon was never recovered.
His legal team has pointed to additional evidence, including law enforcement notes and a cigarette butt found in the Hartigs' driveway, which they say raises questions about whether other suspects were responsible.
One person identified by Noling's advocates is Dan Wilson, who was executed by lethal injection in Ohio in 2009 for an unrelated crime. According to court filings by Noling's lawyers, a man previously told authorities that Wilson, his foster brother, had boasted about committing the Hartig murders.
Former Portage County Sheriff Ken Howe, now 83, is among the witnesses supporting Noling at the clemency hearing. Howe has said he noticed red flags in the original investigation and that evidence accumulated over the years has convinced him that Noling should not have been convicted.
“I believe that these boys were, and are, innocent,” Howe said.
The Ohio Parole Board is expected to deliberate in executive session after the hearing and submit its recommendation to Governor DeWine by August 25.
The final decision on whether Noling receives clemency rests with the governor, potentially bringing a major turning point in a case that has kept him on death row for three decades.