Log of inmate who committed suicide was falsified, report says

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

One and possibly two prison guards apparently falsified an electronic log documenting checks on a death-row inmate who committed suicide just days before his execution was to go forward, according to an Ohio prison report released Monday.

Video evidence shows prison rounds started later than indicated by the log and came in one-hour increments instead of every half-hour as ordered for that unit, the report says.

The report also says all six officers on death-row units that night were relief officers without training specific to death row, and one of the two officers still was on probationary status.

The nine-page review does not say whether the guards, if they had followed the rules, could have prevented the Aug. 4 death-row suicide of condemned killer Billy Slagle. Slagle was just minutes away from being placed on close observation that is mandatory in the 72 hours before an execution.

His Aug. 7 execution appeared on track despite the plea for mercy from the prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland, who argued that Slagle never should have received a death sentence.

Prosecutor Tim McGinty cited Slagle’s age — he was just 18 when he fatally stabbed his neighbor Mari Anne Pope — and a long history of drug and alcohol addiction. McGinty said under his office’s current policy, he would not have pursued a death-penalty charge.

The report comes at a time of heightened awareness of prison suicides in Ohio. An inmate at Lebanon Correctional Facility in southwest Ohio committed suicide last week, just days after convicted Cleveland kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro hanged himself in his cell with a bedsheet Sept. 3.

Slagle, 44, also died not knowing that his attorneys planned a last-minute appeal, based on evidence provided by McGinty that Slagle had been offered a plea deal before his 1988 trial but his original attorneys never informed him.

The two corrections officers named in the review have been placed on paid administrative leave as the prisons agency investigates. Someone “did falsify the electronic log book for rounds,” the report said.

Messages were left with the union representing prison guards about the allegations.

Slagle’s attorneys said they weren’t aware of the report until provided a copy by The Associated Press. They did not immediately comment on its contents.

The report also singles out lighting in death-row cells, saying the cells are too dark and inmates continue to block windows with paper and other material.

Based on recommendations in the report, the prisons agency will begin relying on mental-health experts to determine if the pre-execution 72-hour watch period should be lengthened for individual inmates.