Some of Today's State News Headlines
Today is Thursday January 31, 2008
Governor urges DNA testing on 30 inmates claiming innocence
COLUMBUS (AP) - Gov. Ted Strickland is urging judges and prosecutors to allow DNA testing on 30 inmates seeking to prove their innocence, The Columbus Dispatch reported today.
A lab north of Cincinnati agreed to conduct the tests for free as a public service, the newspaper said in the last of a five-part series on flaws in the state's DNA testing program. The investigation found that police and courts routinely discard evidence after trials, and prosecutors and judges often dismiss inmate applications for DNA testing without a stated reason.
The Dispatch featured 30 inmates among hundreds whose applications for testing had been stalled. Lawyers representing the inmates plan to seek approval from judges in 13 counties for DNA tests beginning this week.
Strickland said he can find no justifiable reason for judges to block the testing offered by DNA Diagnostics Center, a private lab in Fairfield that does work for law enforcement agencies and defense lawyers.
(Refer to page 8 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
Report: Former highway director may have broken law
COLUMBUS (AP) - The state's former transportation director appears to have broken a law when he lobbied to keep a co-worker from losing her job, a government watchdog said Wednesday.
Gordon Proctor, who resigned as head of the Ohio Department of Transportation in January 2007, testified four months later in front of a state personnel board on behalf of Shobna Varma, ODOT's former technology director who was appealing her dismissal.
Proctor's testimony appears to have violated Ohio's "revolving door" law, which prohibits public employees - within 12 months of leaving office - from testifying before a government agency about a matter in which they played a personal role, Inspector General Tom Charles said in a report.
Charles said he was referring the matter to the Columbus city prosecutor's office and the Ohio Ethics Commission.
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday at a phone listing for Proctor, who led ODOT for nearly eight years under former Gov. Bob Taft.
(Refer to page 8 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
Man sentenced to life in prison for officer's slaying
CLEVELAND (AP) - A man accused of shooting a city police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated murder in a deal with prosecutors that called for a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.
Wilson Santiago, 39, of Cleveland, could have faced the death penalty if convicted of the charge. His trial was scheduled to start Monday.
A three-judge panel in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court presided over the plea agreement and issued the sentence.
County Assistant Prosecutor David Zimmerman said making sure Santiago will spend the rest of his life in prison was the key element of the plea deal.
"Originally the defense approached us to discuss a plea," Zimmerman said. "We contacted the victim's family, detectives who conducted investigation and other members of the police department. This was done for the sake of the officer's family. It allows them to move on rather than have to relive it."
(Refer to page 8 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
Pickup Your Copy Of The Daily Chief-Union Today For The Rest Of The Stories....