Tyrone Noling Clemency Hearing Held in Columbus After 30 Years on Ohio Death Row

Tyrone Noling seeks pardon in long-running Ohio murder case

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tyrone Noling, an Ohio death row inmate who has maintained his innocence for three decades, appeared before the Ohio Parole Board on Tuesday to seek a full pardon in the 1990 killings of an elderly Portage County couple.

The Tyrone Noling clemency hearing marked a rare opportunity for a condemned prisoner without an active execution date to argue directly for release. Noling, 54, was convicted and sentenced to death for the shootings of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, both 81, at their home in Atwater Township. He has consistently denied taking part in the crime.

Following the hearing, the parole board is expected to deliberate in executive session and send its recommendation to Gov. Mike DeWine within six business days. DeWine has the final authority to grant or deny clemency.

1990 killings led to a death sentence six years later

The Hartigs were found dead on the kitchen floor of their Portage County home after a neighbor noticed their lawn mower had remained at the front of the property for several days. Authorities said the house had been ransacked. Bearnhardt Hartig had been shot three times and Cora Hartig five times with a .25-caliber automatic handgun.

Prosecutors alleged that Noling, who had recently turned 18, was involved with a group carrying out burglaries targeting older couples. Three younger people linked to that group implicated Noling in the Hartig killings. Those witnesses later withdrew their statements, saying investigators had pressured them to identify Noling as the shooter.

Aggravated burglary charges initially brought against Noling were dismissed in 1992. A grand jury reindicted him on murder charges in 1995, and he received a death sentence the following year.

Advocates point to recantations and alternate-suspect evidence

Noling’s supporters, including the Ohio Innocence Project, contend that no physical evidence connected him to the Hartig home and that investigators never recovered the murder weapon. His clemency case includes recanted testimony, law-enforcement records and other material that his advocates say should raise doubt about the conviction.

Defense lawyers have also cited a cigarette butt found in the Hartigs’ driveway and information involving other possible suspects. One of those men was Dan Wilson, who was executed by Ohio in 2009 for an unrelated killing. Court filings by Noling’s attorneys say a man told authorities that his foster brother, Wilson, had bragged about committing the Hartig murders.

Former Portage County Sheriff Ken Howe, now 83, was among witnesses expected to support Noling’s request. Howe told The Associated Press that concerns he had about the case at the time, combined with evidence that emerged later, convinced him Noling and the other young people accused were innocent.

“I believe that these boys were, and are, innocent,” Howe said.

The case has attracted national attention through documentaries, true-crime podcasts and support from celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Hilarie Burton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Noling has said he would not accept a commutation to life without parole because he maintains he did not commit the murders.

The hearing also comes after DeWine, a Republican, said in June that he supports abolishing the death penalty, explaining that he no longer believes capital punishment deters violent crime. The Ohio Parole Board’s recommendation is now pending, and Noling remains on death row while the governor considers the case.