COLUMBUS,
Ohio (AP) — One and possibly two prison guards apparently falsified an
electronic log documenting checks on a death row inmate who committed
suicide just days before his execution was to go forward, according to
an Ohio prison report released Monday.
Video evidence shows prison
rounds started later than indicated by the log and came in one-hour
increments instead of every half hour as ordered for that unit, the
report says.
The report also says all six officers on death row
units that night were relief officers without training specific to death
row, and one of the two officers was still on probationary status.
The
nine-page review does not say whether the guards, if they had followed
the rules, could have prevented the Aug. 4 death row suicide of
condemned killer Billy Slagle. Slagle was just minutes away from being
placed on close observation that is mandatory in the 72 hours before an
execution.
His Aug. 7 execution appeared on track despite the plea
for mercy from the prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland,
who argued that Slagle should never have received a death sentence.
Prosecutor
Tim McGinty cited Slagle's age — he was just 18 when he fatally stabbed
his neighbor Mari Anne Pope — and a long history of drug and alcohol
addiction. McGinty said under his office's current policy he would not
have pursued a death penalty charge.
The report comes at a time of
heightened awareness of prison suicides in Ohio. An inmate at Lebanon
Correctional Facility in southwest Ohio committed suicide last week,
just days after convicted Cleveland kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro
hanged himself in his cell with a bedsheet on Sept. 3.
Slagle, 44,
also died not knowing that his attorneys planned a last-minute appeal,
based on evidence provided by McGinty that Slagle had been offered a
plea deal before his 1988 trial but his original attorneys never
informed him.
The two corrections officers named in the review
have been placed on paid administrative leave as the prisons agency
investigates. Someone "did falsify the electronic log book for rounds,"
the report said.
Messages were left with the union representing
prison guards about the allegations. Slagle's attorneys said they
weren't aware of the report until provided a copy by The Associated
Press. They did not immediately comment on its contents.
The
report also singles out lighting in death row cells, saying the cells
are too dark and inmates continue to block windows with paper and other
material.
Based on recommendations in the report, the prisons
agency will begin relying on mental health experts to determine if the
pre-execution 72-hour watch period should be lengthened for individual
inmates.
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