Court to hear claim by former inmate

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of a former death- row inmate trying to clear his name in a pair of slayings he didn’t commit.

Dale Johnston of suburban Columbus was sentenced to die in 1984 for the shooting deaths of his teenage stepdaughter and her fiance two years earlier.

The case against him fell apart on appeal, and he was freed in 1990. Another man confessed in 2008 to killing the couple.

Two years ago, a Franklin County judge declared the 80-year-old Johnston innocent in the slayings, allowing him to seek compensation from the state.

An appeals court then overturned that decision, but the state Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected that ruling and accepted Johnston’s appeal.

The state opposes Johnston’s efforts to be compensated.