Innocence groups from around the country, along with a group of eyewitness testimony experts, recently filed amicus briefs asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of Kevin Keith, an Ohio man who is on death row for fatally shooting three people in 1994. The innocence groups stated that Keith’s conviction was based on faulty eyewitness testimony that was improperly influenced by the police. In addition, Keith’s counsel uncovered another possible suspect, a man with a violent criminal history, who told a confidential police informant that he was paid to “cripple” the person who was the target of the shooting. Defense lawyers asserted that the state withheld important information about the possible other suspect. Keith has an alibi for the time of the crime supported by four witnesses. No forensic evidence conclusively links him to the crime. Keith is scheduled for execution on September 15.
Updated (on June 22): For more information, visit www.kevinkeith.org.
(A. Welsh-Huggins, “Innocence groups back condemned Ohio killer of 3,” Associated Press, April 6, 2010). See also Innocence.
