Judge Denies DNA Testing For Condemned Ohio Inmate

[upstatecajun]

Source: NBC 4i Columbus/AP

KENT, Ohio --
A judge won't allow DNA testing that some believe could help exonerate an Ohio death row inmate who says he was wrongly convicted.

Tyrone Noling was convicted in 1996 of fatally shooting an elderly Portage County couple at their home.

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reports lawyers for the Ohio Innocence Project want to test a cigarette butt found at the scene against DNA profiles of offenders in a national database, including a convicted killer who was executed.

The judge denied the request this week for a second time, citing tests two decades ago that already showed Noling and his co-defendants had not smoked the cigarette.



Read more: http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2011/apr/02/judge-denies-dna-testing-condemned-ohio-inmate-ar-441330/

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[TownDrunk2]

1. The Judge needs to be replaced with a sentient being

[PatentlyDemocratic]

2. Similar to a 2009 Supreme Court case...

In 2009, Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion in "DA's Office for 3rd Judicial District v. Osborne." A guy was convicted of the rape and attempted murder of a prostitute. On appeal, he requested a DNA analysis. The Supreme Court denied the appeal and affirmed the conviction, because DNA analysis is not a "fundamental" right under substantive due process.

Although that is a conservative, "originalist" viewpoint, there is a practical justification for the ruling. The defendant could have gotten DNA testing for trial, but intentionally delayed in the hopes of lost or degraded evidence by the time of appeal.

It really depends on the facts of this case, which aren't apparent from the article. I'm going to look up the case to find out...

Update: The guy on death row in this case, Noling, committed the crime with 2 accomplices. They were involved in a string of home invasion robberies. In one such robbery, they stole a .25 pistol. A .25 pistol was used to murder the elderly couple. Apart from his two accomplices fingering him as the shooter, multiple other people testified that Noling had bragged about murdering the elderly couple.

Apparently the cigarette was tested back then, and it was shown not to be smoked by Noling. He was nonetheless convicted by the jury. There are any number of plausible reasons for the cigarette to be there.