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Thread: Elwood Hubert Jones - Ohio

  1. #11
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Execution date reset for December 6, 2023.
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

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  2. #12
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    Ohio man on death row wants another shot at justice, hearing begins for new trial

    By Alexa Helwig
    WKRC

    CINCINNATI – A man who has been on death row for more than two decades wants another shot at justice. Elwood Jones was convicted of beating a woman to death in a Blue Ash hotel, but he has always maintained his innocence.

    Elwood Jones has a newfound sense of hope.

    Attorney Jay Clark said there is new evidence and Jones deserves a fair trial.

    During opening statements, Clark showed a judge 4,000 pages of evidence he said prosecutors did not present at Jones’ trial.

    One of the most stunning new details is a woman named Linda Reed told a fellow inmate at the Hamilton County Jail that her husband, Earl Reed, confessed to killing Rhoda Nathan at the Embassy Suites in Blue Ash. She said he framed a black man for it.

    That witness, who asked to remain anonymous, took the stand Wednesday and said she called Blue Ash Police after leaving jail.

    “The person got on the phone, and I let him know what Linda Reed had told me and he had said that it was a closed case and we found something in his possession,” the witness said.

    Hamilton County Prosecutors question her memory of the facts. They argued Reed’s story is not reliable, stating she was mentally compromised at the time.

    A second witness took the stand.

    Robyn Budd said she was staying at the hotel the day of the murder.

    She left that morning to go to the store.

    “That morning as I was leaving, I came down to the first floor was exiting the hotel to the side and that’s when I noticed somebody ahead of me out the door and running through the parking lot and sprinting into the woods,” Budd said.

    Budd described the person she saw that day as a young, tall, and light-complected man.

    After Elwood was granted the hearing for a new trial, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters put out a statement saying, "Our office will oppose Elwood Jones' motion for a new trial. His motion is based on what the state will argue is inadmissible hearsay. The Blue Ash Police have no record of ever being contacted by the woman who claims to have new evidence. Jones was convicted on solid evidence and his conviction should stand."

    The hearing is expected to go through Friday.

    https://local12.com/news/local/ohio-...incinnati-ohio
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  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Death-row inmate, subject of ‘Accused’ podcast, granted new trial

    By Amber Hunt
    Fox19

    An Ohio man who’s been awaiting execution for nearly 30 years for a murder he maintains he didn’t commit should be given a new trial, a Hamilton County judge has ruled.

    Elwood Jones, whose conviction was the focus of the fourth season of Accused, a true-crime podcast produced by The Enquirer and USA TODAY, learned the results Tuesday of a dramatic and rare three-day court hearing held before Hamilton County Judge Wende Cross in late August. Jones’ lawyers argued that prosecutors withheld potentially exculpatory evidence from Jones’ original defense team before his murder trial in 1996.

    Cross said Tuesday the undisclosed evidence was material in that it undermined the jury’s verdict.

    “Whether the state acted in bad faith or out of negligence, when failing to disclose material evidence to the defense which could have arguably changed the outcome of the trial, it is clear the failure to disclose the prior to trial deprived Elwood Jones of a fair trial,” Cross said. “The Sixth Amendment requires a new trial as the only appropriate remedy.”

    The case centered on the Sept. 3, 1994, beating death of Rhoda Nathan, a New Jersey grandmother killed in her Blue Ash hotel room after coming to the region for her best friend’s grandson’s bar mitzvah. The most recent season of “Accused” highlighted inaccuracies presented in the original trial, as well as investigative paths Blue Ash investigators and Hamilton County prosecutors did not pursue.

    The August hearing was a hail Mary effort by Jones’ lawyers after years of failed appeals. To underscore the number of documents prosecutors failed to share with the defense, Jones’ team − led by lawyers Jay Clark and David Hine, working pro bono − filled seven thick binders with more than 4,000 pages that hadn’t originally been turned over. Since the hearing ended, both sides have been awaiting the ruling from Cross, who had promised to “review everything I need to review” before making a decision. Notification of Tuesday’s hearing appeared in the county’s online court system last week. Jones attended in person.

    Prosecutors wrote in a post-hearing closing argument that the “evidence of Jones’ guilt remains as compelling today as it was 25 years ago.” Weeks after the hearing, Prosecutor Joe Deters released a video online in which he said Jones was not only guilty, but that he was a “murderous bastard” who would kill again if released from prison. Deters didn’t personally argue the case in 1995, delegating it to assistant prosecutors Seth Tieger and Mark Piepmeier, the latter of whom called Jones an “asshole” on the TV show Forensic Files in the 1990s. Asked if he stood by that character assessment when interviewed for the Accused podcast in 2019, Piepmeier modified the description to “f---ing asshole.”

    Jones, who’d had legal run-ins with prosecutors long before the 1994 slaying, said that the office focused on him for personal reasons. In a recent message sent from behind bars, Jones said that prosecutors “have elected to overlook or disregard the facts in this case” and “are simply making personal attacks towards me … resorting to character assassination and name calling.”

    Tieger was joined in the recent hearing by assistant prosecuting attorney Philip Cummings, both of whom argued before Cross that the circumstantial evidence pointing to Jones is solid. That evidence included an infected cut on Jones’ hand that prosecutors argued likely came from punching Nathan in the mouth, as well as a pendant belonging to Nathan allegedly discovered in the trunk of Jones’ car several days after the murder.

    Before reaching her decision, Cross had already filed one ruling in favor of Jones. She agreed that hairs collected from the crime scene should be tested for DNA. It’s unclear what that testing could uncover. Because the crime scene was a hotel room, and because multiple people trampled through the room as efforts were made to save Nathan’s life, the forensic evidence gathered there has long been considered of questionable value.

    Jurors convicted Jones in late 1996, then sentenced him to die in early 1997, and he’s been on death row ever since. His execution date has been repeatedly postponed because of his appeals and, more recently, the COVID pandemic.

    https://www.fox19.com/2022/12/20/dea...ted-new-trial/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  4. #14
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Here is the Forensic Files episode on Elwood Jones
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  5. #15
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Bond set for death row inmate in Ohio as he awaits new trial

    WLWT

    A bond amount has been set for an Ohio inmate on death row who is awaiting a new trial.

    Elwood Jones was convicted in the 1994 killing of Rhoda Nathan in Blue Ash. In December, a judge ruled that his trial was unfair and Jones would get a new trial.

    On Friday, court documents showed that Jones' bond has been set at $50,000 unsecured with an electronic monitoring device.

    According to court docs, Jones shall reside with his sister, Gwen Smith, in Cincinnati.

    Jones will report bi-weekly to the Hamilton County Probation Department for random drug screens.

    Jones is next due in court on July 13, 2023.

    In September of 1994, Nathan was found murdered in her hotel room at the Embassy Suites in Blue Ash.

    Two years later, Jones, a hotel employee, was on trial for her murder.

    Jones was convicted and sentenced to death.

    Then, almost 30 years later, Jones was back in the courtroom.

    After years of maintaining his innocence, Hamilton County Judge Wende Cross granted him a new trial, saying the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office and the Blue Ash Police Department withheld evidence that could have led to an acquittal.

    On Friday, the city prosecutor's office released a statement on Jones' bail hearing.

    "It is shocking that a trial court believes they have the authority to ignore the direct orders of a superior court. Our criminal justice system cannot function if trial courts thwart the authority of the First District Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals," Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Amy Clausing said.

    Clausing continued: "And now, Judge Cross has released Elwood Jones from jail despite the fact that the Ohio Constitution states that those charged with capital offenses are not eligible for bail. The family of Rhoda Nathan and the people of Hamilton County deserve better than this."

    https://www.wlwt.com/article/bond-se...trial/42487286
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #16
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    March 14, 2023

    ’I was a thief. I'm not a murderer.' After nearly 30 years on death row, a retrial

    By Amber Hunt
    USA TODAY NETWORK

    CINCINNATI – Every morning since his release from Ohio's death row, Elwood Jones has inched closer toward feeling somewhat free.

    He wakes up sometimes at 7 a.m. now rather than the 5 a.m. he was used to in prison. He makes his own coffee. He lets his sister's dog, Cado, outside and then sits at the kitchen table with the American Bulldog quietly keeping him company.

    But he isn't really free. While a judge in December overturned the capital murder conviction that landed him on death row in 1996, Hamilton County prosecutors continue to oppose his release, insisting he's the man responsible for the brutal beating death of Rhoda Nathan.

    Jones under house arrest

    "I can't go out and sit on the front porch," Jones, 70, said in a Tuesday morning interview with TheCincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network, which highlighted his case in the fourth season of its investigative podcast Accused. Jones' release from county jail while awaiting a retrial set for early next year requires him to wear a GPS monitor that only allows him to roam inside his sister's house. The front and back porches are off limits.

    It's a strange limbo Jones is in, though he's quick to say he isn't complaining.

    "I'm with my sister. My other sister comes and sees me just about every day," he said. "My nephew, we sit and talk all the time and joke, and I see all my nieces and nephews (who) come out and spend time with me.

    "I'm at ease, but I'm still lost at times."

    Evidence withheld

    Hamilton County Judge Wende Cross overturned Jones' conviction in December, citing more than 4,000 investigative documents that prosecutors withheld from Jones' original defense team. Two prior rulings from the Supreme Court of the United States – 1963's Brady v. Maryland and 1996's Kyles v. Whitley – had established before Jones' conviction in December of 1996 that police and prosecutors are obligated to turn over to defendants potentially exculpatory and material evidence.

    The Ohio First District Court of Appeals last week denied prosecutors the chance to reverse Cross' ruling. Still outstanding is a motion aiming to put Jones back in jail while he awaits his retrial. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April, while Cross scheduled the start of the new trial for Feb. 5, 2024.

    It was after the appellate court's ruling last week that Jones said he began "sleeping in" until 7 a.m. That had been the state's "best hope of relief," according to Jay Clark, one of Jones' pro-bono defense lawyers. Jones said that he learned the news that Cross' ruling wouldn't be overturned when another of his lawyers, David Hine, called him.


    "I really couldn't believe it, and I was lost for words," Jones said. "I'm still lost for words, in a sense. Because of all the bad rulings that have come out over the years, it's kind of hard to comprehend when something good happens."

    Hine and Clark arranged for Jones to speak to reporters Tuesday for the first time since his release from jail as a way to "correct the narrative, or at least recalibrate it," as Hine said.

    “Almost all of the coverage of this case has been through the eyes of the prosecutors, and I think it's sufficient to say that we do not believe that is an accurate lens to view this case through," Hine said.

    1996 conviction

    Jones was convicted in late 1996 of killing Nathan, a New Jersey grandmother who'd come to Cincinnati over Labor Day weekend in 1994 for a family friend's bar mitzvah, while she readied for the day in her Embassy Suites hotel room in Blue Ash. Jones was then employed at the hotel and was known to Hamilton County prosecutors because he had a prior rap sheet, largely for theft.

    "I was a thief," Jones said. "I'm not a murderer. I did not kill Ms. Nathan."

    Prosecutors have repeatedly declined or ignored Enquirer interview requests about the case since the Accused podcast highlighted investigative avenues police ignored, which included other hotel employees with violent rap sheets. One man not only had previously faced charges for violent crimes but also was reportedly at the hotel in uniform at the time of Nathan's death despite not being scheduled to work that shift.

    Details about that employee were among the thousands of pages of investigatory documents prosecutors withheld from Jones' defense team. Other documents included questionnaires filled out by hotel guests after the murder describing suspicious men in and near Nathan's hotel room around the time of the slaying.

    Despite prosecutors continuing to call Jones a "murderous bastard" with "a lot of crime left in him," Jones said he harbors no ill will toward police or prosecutors. He acknowledged feeling occasional "bitterness," but said that sentiment isn't directed toward anyone specific.

    After all, he said, he had been a criminal prior to Nathan's murder and understands how he landed on the suspect list in her death. Now, though, he said it's time to move forward.

    To that end, he spends his days sewing stuffed animals that he showed reporters Tuesday. He gives the toys as gifts to people he considered helpful in his release, including attorneys Hine and Clark. Jones said he learned from his mother how to sew the animals and wiled away some of his time behind bars working on similar creatures and quilts.

    "I learned way before this not to be bitter," he said.

    He already visited his mother's grave to assure her she could rest in peace. If he gets the chance, he hopes to similarly visit his uncles' graves near Dayton to say the same.

    The biggest shocks post-release, he said, have been advances in technology and, on the rare occasion he's been allowed to drive through Cincinnati on his way to court-approved appointments, how much the city has changed.

    Asked what the best part is of the bit of freedom he currently has, Jones' eyes teared up as he answered: "For me to hold my nieces and nephews."

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...l/11472540002/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    On June 20th, 2023, Hamilton County prosecutors asked the Ohio Supreme Court to vacate Jones' December 6th, 2023 execution date, due to ongoing litigation.

    https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/pd...tory=1998-1891

  8. #18
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    On August 2nd, the Ohio Supreme Court formally vacated Jones' execution date.

    F3f8J4LXYAA3T4n.jpg

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