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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Ohio governor stays execution of convicted killer

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New date set for 2014.

Ohio's governor has delayed a condemned child killer's execution to study the feasibility of allowing the man to donate his organs to ailing relatives.

Republican Gov. John Kasich has rescheduled 40-year-old Ronald Phillips' lethal injection to July 2.

Phillips was sentenced to die for raping and killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Akron in 1993.

Kasich said Wednesday that Phillips' crime was heinous but his willingness to donate organs and tissue could save another life and the state "should allow that to happen."

Phillips made his request Monday after he'd been denied mercy and his other legal options were exhausted. He says it wasn't a delay tactic but an attempt to do good.

A prisons spokeswoman said Phillips will be returned to death row to await the assessment's findings.

Source: Associated Press, November 13, 2013
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