Clemency recommended for Ohio death row inmate Shawn Hawkins

The Ohio Parole Board today recommended that death row inmate Shawn Hawkins of Cincinnati be spared execution and spend the rest of his life in prison.

The clemency report by the parole board recommends that Ohio Gov. John Kasich commute the death sentence and order Hawkins, 42, to be in prison for life without parole.

Hawkins was convicted and sentenced to death out of Hamilton County for the June 1989 deaths of Terrance Richard and Diamond Marteen. Hawkins is scheduled for execution on June 14, 2011.

According to the report: "The Board is not confident in the death sentence in this case, but is also not convinced that Shawn Hawkins is innocent.''

Because of that uncertainty, the 7-member board recommended unanimously that Kasich commute the death sentence.

Anthony G. Covatta Jr., Hawkins' Cincinnati attorney, who has argued that Hawkins deserves a new trial, said the death penalty is a "fate that Shawn does not deserve."

Covatta said the parole board had evidence that the jury in the original case did not see or hear.

"We are confident that Governor Kasich will use his clemency power to affirm the Parole Board's unanimous recommendation,'' he said.

Covatta has filed a motion for a new trial. Arguments from defense lawyers and Hamilton County prosecutors are scheduled Tuesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

The mother of victim Terrance Richard was outraged at the recommendation for clemency.

"My son's death was in vain," said Barbara Richard, 60, of North College Hill. "They make me feel like they're rewarding him (Shawn Hawkins) for killing my son because of the detectives of Mount Healthy weren't doing their job."

She said the governor has the last word, "so hopefully he will do what is right."

Richard's cousin, Shirley Miller, 70, of Forest Park, urged Kasich to reject the recommendation for clemency.

"The governor needs to send a message to all of the young folks out there with guns that when you kill somebody you're going to have to give up your own life," she said.

Source: cincinnati.com, May 12, 2011

Inmate asks to be spared death

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An inmate scheduled to die next month for killing two men in 1989 is asking the Ohio Parole Board for mercy, saying new evidence exonerates him of the crime.

A new forensic analysis casts doubt on the prosecution's argument that one of the victims was killed in a car by death row inmate Shawn Hawkins in Mount Healthy, according to a motion for a new trial filed by attorneys for Hawkins.

The motion also argues that three witnesses now provide alibis for Hawkins at the time of the slayings of 18-year-old Terrance Richard and 19-year-old Diamond Marteen, and that a partial fingerprint of Hawkins found in the car was handled improperly and is flawed evidence.

The motion also questions inconsistent testimony from the sole eyewitness to the slayings.

"It beggars the imagination of the undersigned as to how a conviction was ever obtained on such evidence," attorney Anthony Covatta said in the filing Monday.

On Wednesday, Covatta argued before the Ohio Parole Board that Hawkins' life should be spared.

Click here to read the full article.

Source: cincinnati.com, May 4, 2011

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