No clemency for Ohio man who killed kids in fire

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio Parole Board has turned down a request for mercy from a death row inmate who set fires in Cincinnati that killed five children in 1992.

The panel ruled unanimously today against clemency for convicted murderer William Garner, whose execution is scheduled for next month.

The parole board said it’s clear the 37-year-old Garner was raised in an “exceptionally and horribly” abusive home and suffered developmentally. But it said those factors did not outweigh the deaths of the children, which the board called “an offense of unusual magnitude.”

Garner told police he set fire to an apartment to destroy evidence of a burglary and said he thought the children who were inside would escape.

Victims’ relatives had urged that clemency be denied.