USA - Ohio. After 20 Years, Death Row InmateJoe D'Ambrosio May Be Exonerated.

After 20 Years, Ohio Death Row Inmate May Be Exonerated. U.S. District Judge Kate O'Malley barred the re-prosecution of former Ohio death row inmate Joe D'Ambrosio, 48, white, for the murder of 19-year-old Tony Klann in 1988. The court had ruled in 2006 that state prosecutors improperly withheld evidence about their star witness that could have exonerated D'Ambrosio at his 1989 trial. That ruling led to D'Ambrosio's conviction and death sentence being vacated, and he was eventually released on bond pending a possible retrial. But the state delayed reprosecuting him and did not tell the court that its primary witness, their only eyewitness to the murder, had died. The court concluded that these developments biased D'Ambrosio's chances for a fair trial, and hence the state was barred from retrying him.