PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "No physical evidence ever linked Noling to the murders. Instead, he was convicted based on the word of his alleged accomplices, the youngest of whom was just 14 when the murders happened in 1990. They have since recanted their testimony, claiming they were coerced and intimidated by an investigator from the Portage County prosecutor’s office."
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EDITORIAL: "Juror adds one more reason Tyrone Noling deserves a new shot at justice," by The Akron Beacon Journal editorial board, published on April 4, 2025.
KEY POINTS: "A juror from Tyrone Noling's murder case 30 years ago believes he deserves a retrial. The Beacon Journal editorial board does too. Noling's trial was full of missteps that lead to questions about his guilt. Noling has been on death row since his trial.
GIST: "In the nearly three decades since Tyrone Noling has been sentenced to death row for the murder of an elderly couple, compelling evidence has racked up against keeping him there.
The latest: A juror from the trial coming forward after 30 years of reflection to say she believes the jury made the wrong choice.
“If I have to say if I think he is innocent or guilty, I would have to say: innocent,” Christine Richards, who was just 23 when she served on the jury, recently told the Beacon Journal.
She believes Noling deserves a new trial. So do we.
Noling was targeted for the murder of Atwater Township couple Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig because of his criminal history of robbing homes in Alliance in early 1990.
But the case has unraveled since nearly the moment it was closed.
No physical evidence ever linked Noling to the murders. Instead, he was convicted based on the word of his alleged accomplices, the youngest of whom was just 14 when the murders happened in 1990. They have since recanted their testimony, claiming they were coerced and intimidated by an investigator from the Portage County prosecutor’s office.
This is the same prosecutor’s office that pushed for the 1990 manslaughter and murder convictions of two men, Bob Gondor and Randy Resh, during a trial that included false testimony and missing key evidence. They were freed 16 years later after a judge found they were wrongly convicted.
Prosecutors in Noling’s case also failed to disclose other likely suspects, including a man who lived nearby and was eventually executed by the state for a different murder.
And now, Richards has stepped forward to add one more piece to the compelling puzzle forming the picture of Noling’s possible innocence.
Noling’s attorneys with the Innocence Project are currently reviewing a recently released analysis to see if information on alternate suspects was missing from the prosecution’s file. This may give them enough to get Noling a new trial.
And perhaps they have a chance: Victor Vigluicci, the Portage County prosecutor who has long protested attorneys’ attempts at proving Noling’s innocence, calling them nothing more than delay tactics, just retired at the end of last year.
A new prosecutor and a renewed interest from previous jurors could just be the push a judge needs to pick up the case. Any other jurors who feel similarly to Richards would be right to step up and speak out as she courageously did to add momentum to the case.
The death penalty has been on hold in Ohio since 2018, and DeWine has indicated the state won’t pursue any more executions as long as he’s governor through 2026.
But President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January in an attempt to help states secure drugs used in lethal injections after pharmaceutical companies have been unwilling to supply it. This has piqued some Ohio lawmakers’ interest in reintroducing the death penalty with the use of nitrogen hypoxia.
No potentially innocent person deserves to wait in limbo as their fate is debated by lawmakers.
Instead, a debate should be taking place in the courtroom if even a drop of doubt exists over a suspect's guilt, as it does with Noling, who has maintained his innocence from the start yet has sat on death row since he was 24 years old.
It is up to prosecutors to prove without a shadow of a doubt that Noling is guilty. If Noling truly committed the crime, they should feel confident they can do that.
And if not, well, Noling's attorney all those years ago, Pete Cahoon, said it best: “One of the worst tragedies, one of the worst miscarriages of justice, would be to find out that he didn’t do this – to find out after he’s executed. That’s a reason to spare his life.”
The entire editorial can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
