Ohio: Death Row inmate wins case for new DNA testing

Convicted inmates still trying to prove their innocence from Death Row and elsewhere in Ohio’s prison system received an assist from the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday.

The court ruled 5-2 that a Portage County court must reconsider DNA testing for Death Row inmate Tyrone Noling, who was convicted in 1996 of murdering an elderly couple in their home.

The ruling says that Noling’s current request for testing shouldn’t have been dismissed simply because he previously was denied testing. The ruling also said that the local court didn’t take into account new standards and expanded criteria for testing approved by Ohio lawmakers in 2010.

The decision will have significance in other Ohio post-conviction cases, mainly because it reaffirms the new state law that encourages more testing if the evidence is significant to the case and to take advantage of advances in DNA-testing technology.

“Noling contends that (the state law) significantly changed and expanded the criteria for permitting further DNA testing. We agree,” wrote Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger, who wrote the court’s decision.

The decision also confirmed the Supreme Court’s right to hear appeals of a trial court’s denial of DNA testing in all Death Row cases.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, May 3, 2013