Ohio judge’s change of heart gives convicted man a chance

TOLEDO (AP) — A few month before he died, Judge William Skow told the state parole board he was convinced that a man he sent to prison for murder 12 years ago didn’t commit the crime.

The Ohio Parole Board, citing the judge’s letter, recently recommended that Willie Knighten Jr.’s sentence be commuted so that he is immediately eligible for parole. The final decision is up to Gov. Ted Strickland.

Knighten, 37, is serving a sentence of 18 years to life in prison in the killing of a man who was shot in the head and the wounding of another man.

Skow, who heard the case and convicted Knighten, said at the trial in 1997 that witnesses who claimed Knighten was at a party and couldn’t have been the shooter were not credible.

But the judge began having a change of heart.

Skow wrote a letter to the parole board in February that said he had become convinced that his findings were wrong and that it was likely that Knighten was innocent of the charges.

“This case has weighed heavily on my mind ever since,” he said in the letter.

The judge said nothing cleared Knighten of the crime, but there were “an accumulation of facts and anomalies that have led me to this belief” that Knighten is innocent.

The judge also said several significant errors were made during Knighten’s trial, and he criticized the police investigation.

“Knighten’s attorney chose to put on a very shaky alibi defense which did not help his cause though this does not excuse my error in not analyzing the state’s case dispassionately,” he wrote.