Ex-death row inmate wants name cleared

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

A central Ohio man who was freed in 1990 after spending more than five years on death row for the killing of his stepdaughter and her fianc in 1982 plans to renew his effort to get his name cleared.

Dale Johnston of Grove City sought to be declared not guilty by a judge after another person, Chester McKnight, confessed to the killings in 2008 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, The Columbus Dispatch reported Saturday. Johnston, 77, thought the confession would clear the way for an acknowledgement in court that he wasn’t guilty, and for his eligibility to get compensation for being wrongfully imprisoned.

But when Johnston went to court seeking exoneration, the office of then-Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat, objected.

“They have done everything they could to prevent me from being judged wrongfully convicted, even though everyone knows someone else killed the kids,” Johnston said. “It’s their idea of justice, but not mine.”

Johnston and his attorney dropped their court action late last year but plan to refile the case. He’s hoping he’ll have more luck with Ohio’s new attorney general, Republican Mike DeWine.

Cordray declined to talk about the case, and a spokeswoman for DeWine told the newspaper that his office can’t comment because Johnston has not filed a new legal action.

Johnston was released in 1990 when prosecutors’ case fell apart on appeal and they opted not to retry him. He sought a ruling that he was not guilty in 1993, but a judge found Johnston had not proved his innocence.

He tried again for a ruling a decade later after a change in state law, but Cordray’s lawyers argued Johnston’s filing wasn’t timely and that the issue of whether he was innocent had been addressed in 1993.

“Technically, I’m still guilty,“ Johnston said. ”For the life of me, I can’t understand the positions they’ve taken. There’s no reason, no logic for it.”