US Supreme Court decision means Ohioan stays free

CLEVELAND (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a decision that prevents prosecutors from pursuing another trial against a man who spent two decades on Ohio’s death row.

The high court today rejected a request by the state to review an August ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that favored former inmate Joe D’Ambrosio.

D’Ambrosio spent more than 21 years behind bars after being convicted of murder in the 1988 death of 19-year-old Tony Klann, whose body was found in a creek at a Cleveland park. He was released in 2009, about three years after a federal judge ruled that prosecutors failed to provide evidence that could have exonerated him.

In a statement, D’Ambrosio said, “Today was 23 years in the making. ... Justice has finally prevailed.”