The State of Ohio is poised to execute Kevin Keith on September 15, 2010, in spite of overwhelming evidence supporting what Mr. Keith has maintained from the time of his arrest – he is actually innocent, wrongfully convicted of a crime based on faulty eyewitness identification. The Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts all support relief for Mr. Keith. Help urge the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith by adding your name to this letter.
Clemency For Kevin Keith
Hello,
The State of Ohio is poised to execute Kevin Keith on September 15, 2010, in spite of overwhelming evidence supporting what Mr. Keith has maintained from the time of his arrest – he is actually innocent, wrongfully convicted of a crime based on faulty eyewitness identification.
Mr. Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by four witnesses.
The Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts all support relief for Mr. Keith.
I urgently appeal to the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith to prevent the State of Ohio from doing the intolerable: putting a man to death for a crime he did not commit.
The primary evidence against Mr. Keith was the erroneous eyewitness identification of one of the surviving victims of the crime, who identified Mr. Keith in spite of initially telling at least four witnesses that he was unable to identify the perpetrator. This identification of Mr. Keith relied on the very procedures recognized to be unreliable and inaccurate by Governor Strickland and the Ohio Legislature when the State passed into law in April new requirements for eyewitness identification procedures.
New evidence recently uncovered by counsel for Mr. Keith further discredits the identification. Thirteen years after he was convicted, Mr. Keith discovered that one of the State’s supposed “witnesses” – who was critical to corroborating the legitimacy of the eyewitness identification – does not actually exist.
Additional new evidence also implicates an alternative suspect who told a police informant that he was paid to carry out the crime for which Mr. Keith stands to be executed.
No court has ever had the entirety of new evidence before it.
More information on the case can be found at: www.kevinkeith.org.
Mr. Keith has steadfastly maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest and throughout his 16 years on death row. The State of Ohio now risks putting to death an innocent man with no jury ever hearing the entirety of evidence of innocence.
I appeal to the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith.
Mr. Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by four witnesses.
The Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts all support relief for Mr. Keith.
I urgently appeal to the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith to prevent the State of Ohio from doing the intolerable: putting a man to death for a crime he did not commit.
The primary evidence against Mr. Keith was the erroneous eyewitness identification of one of the surviving victims of the crime, who identified Mr. Keith in spite of initially telling at least four witnesses that he was unable to identify the perpetrator. This identification of Mr. Keith relied on the very procedures recognized to be unreliable and inaccurate by Governor Strickland and the Ohio Legislature when the State passed into law in April new requirements for eyewitness identification procedures.
New evidence recently uncovered by counsel for Mr. Keith further discredits the identification. Thirteen years after he was convicted, Mr. Keith discovered that one of the State’s supposed “witnesses” – who was critical to corroborating the legitimacy of the eyewitness identification – does not actually exist.
Additional new evidence also implicates an alternative suspect who told a police informant that he was paid to carry out the crime for which Mr. Keith stands to be executed.
No court has ever had the entirety of new evidence before it.
More information on the case can be found at: www.kevinkeith.org.
Mr. Keith has steadfastly maintained his innocence from the time of his arrest and throughout his 16 years on death row. The State of Ohio now risks putting to death an innocent man with no jury ever hearing the entirety of evidence of innocence.
I appeal to the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith.
[Your name]
We MUST take action for this innocent man on Ohio's death row! He has been wrongfully convicted of a crime based on faulty eyewitness identification. He has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by FOUR witnesses! A surviving victim identified Keith despite telling at least 4 other witnesses that he did not know who the shooter was. An alt. suspect told a police informant that he was paid to carry out the crime for which Keith stands to be executed! Please sign the petition! We cannot execute an innocent individual! That would be inhumane, cruel, unjust, immoral and uncivilized! Take action and sign the petition! We cannot allow Ohio execute an innocent individual! There is overwhelming evidence of this man's innocence!
The police arrested him before they even interviewed all of the surviving victims. The 7 year old victim who knew Keith as her occasional babysitter, excluded him as the shooter and said she was shot by her dad's friend named Bruce. The other adult survivor told 4 different witnesses including a police officer that he did not know who shot him and then police fed him the name Kevin Keith, which he adopted. He identified Keith at trial as the attacker despite previously saying that he could not see the shooter's face because he was wearing a face mask. Regardless, he still picked Keith's photo out of a photo array. There were also problems with the photo array. It was biased against Keith as his photo was projected larger than all of the others. The witness identified Keith despite telling 4 witnesses including police immediately after the shooting that he did not know who shot him and that the shooter was wearing a face mask, yet he still picked Keith's photo out of the array. Eyewitness identification is cited as the most inaccurate and unreliable form of evidence and it is the greatest cause of wrongful convictions. In this case, the eyewitness identification was flawed and tainted by improper influences and suggestions. Police also fabricated a witness to support a shaky identification. 13 years after being convicted, Keith discovered that the witness did not actually exist and that police made up the name! Another man (an alternative suspect) also told a police informant of his plans to carry out the very attack for which Keith now sits on death row standing to be executed! Keith also had at least 4 different alibi witnesses and there was no forensic evidence connecting/linking Keith to the scene of the crime or the getaway car! He was wrongfully convicted based on faulty eyewitness identification by the surviving adult victim. The police procedures (such as the photo array) that led to the identification were unreliable and suggestive. This man is innocent and we cannot allow Ohio to execute an innocent man. That is inhumane, unjust, cruel, and immoral. This man must be spared from being executed immediately! No society should ever take the risk of executing innocent individuals, which is why the death penalty should be abolished worldwide. Since 1973, 138 death row inmates in the US have been exonerated and proven innocent. How many more are still waiting or who have already been executed without proving their innocence? How many have already been executed without having proven their innocence? How many are still waiting to be executed right now?
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