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Litigation Update

Tyrone Noling, Innocent on Death Row: A Case of Murder & Injustice

Coerced Confessions & No Physical Evidence

In 1996, Tyrone Noling was sentenced to death for a double homicide that occurred five years earlier in Atwater, Ohio, a town Tyrone had never been to.  He was only 23 at the time of his sentencing.  In exchange for complete immunity or no additional jail time, two of Tyrone’s co-defendants testified against him, asserting Tyrone was the triggerman in the murders.  They recanted their testimony after trial.  A third co-defendant agreed to testify against Tyrone, but, when put on the stand during trial, the co-defendant recanted his prior statements, testifying instead that he had been coerced and threatened by Portage County investigators into implicating Tyrone.  There is no physical evidence linking Tyrone to the crime scene, and without the coerced testimony of the three co-defendants, the State’s case against Tyrone is virtually non-existent. Tyrone has been sitting on death row for over 20 years for a crime he did not commit, and he continues to fight for his release and justice.    

In 2009, a public records request revealed new—and potentially exculpatory—evidence in Tyrone’s case, including evidence pointing to alternative suspects. The new evidence included (1) notes in a Sheriff’s file reflecting a statement that Dan Wilson, who was convicted of and executed for an unrelated murder, admitted to murdering the Hartigs; (2) DNA evidence from a cigarette butt found in the Hartig’s driveway during the murder investigation that excluded Tyrone but did not exclude Dan Wilson; and (3) statements regarding Dennis Van Steenberg regarding his mysterious and deceptive efforts to conceal a missing .25 caliber handgun, the same caliber and gun type the police believed was used in the Hartig murders.

In light of this newly discovered evidence, in 2010, Tyrone began to seek a new trial in the Portage County Court of Common Pleas. The trial court denied those efforts, concluding that because the prosecution had an “open file” discovery policy at the time of trial, Tyrone failed to demonstrate he was unavoidably prevented from discovering the exculpatory evidence at the time of his original trial.  In 2014, the Eleventh District Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision and remanded to the trial court for further proceedings to determine whether the evidence at issue was part of the open file or otherwise available at the time of Tyrone’s original trial. 

For the past four years, Tyrone has been trying to gain access to the State’s files to answer the Eleventh District’s question—was the evidence in question available to Tyrone at the time of his original trial?  Tyrone filed with the trial court a series of motions asking the court to act on the Eleventh District’s instructions and grant him access to the State’s files, and the trial court denied Tyrone on three separate occasions.  Tyrone finally appealed the issue to the Eleventh District.  In 2022, the Eleventh District held in Tyrone’s favor once again and instructed that “[Tyrone] and his expert must be granted access to the files at issue.” 

Following this second appellate ruling mandating access, Tyrone, through his counsel, reached out to the State several times to arrange for his lawyers and expert to gain access to the files only to be rebuffed by State officials. So Tyrone found himself before the trial court again, asking the court to comply with the directives from the Eleventh District. Rather than simply allowing Tyrone or his expert access to the documents as explicitly required by the Eleventh District, the trial court ordered a hearing at which Tyrone would need to prove that his expert’s testimony would itself be admissible (even though that question is impossible to answer until the expert accesses the evidence in question and develops expert opinions about it). On appeal of that order, the Eleventh District held for Tyrone a third time, and remanded the matter for the trial court to reconsider its ruling that conditioned Tyrone’s access to the documents on proving his expert’s testimony would be admissible.

To this date, the trial court and the prosecution continue to violate multiple mandates from the Eleventh District by refusing to allow Tyrone access to the States’ files. Their actions have only served to further delay justice in this case. Today, Tyrone is waiting for the trial court to act on the remand order.

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Litigation Update

Trial Court Grants Access to Prosecutor’s Files

Following an evidentiary hearing on July 13, 2023, Judge Doherty in the Court of Common Pleas for Portage County issued an order granting Tyrone’s defense counsel access to files related to the case in the possession of the Prosecutor and Sheriff’s offices. The Court’s order also granted defense counsel’s request to provide access to those same files to their expert.

A link to the Court’s order can be found here.

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Articles & News Coverage

What is Judge Doherty Thinking? Tyrone Noling Deserves Justice, Not More Obstacles

Link to Article

Akron Beacon Journal (Opinion), Michael Douglas, Jan. 30, 2023.

In this article, Michael Douglas explains the latest in Tyrone’s battle for justice–attempting to gain access to the prosecution’s files. He explains the Eleventh District’s multiple orders granting Tyrone access, and the delay and inconsistent decisions from the trial court that have restricted Tyrone’s access to the files.

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Media

IT COULDN’T HAPPEN HERE – Atwater, OH

Link to Original Post

Please tune in this Thursday and make some noise about this case. It will be airing on Sundance at 10PM Thursday 9/29/2022. 26 years is a long time to sit on death row for a crime you did not commit. The title of the show is “It couldn’t happen here”. We also think that it couldn’t happen to us, but it could.

Please help to stop this in justice and bring Tyrone home #freeTyroneNoling

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Resources

CALL TO ACTION – WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Please, Join us in this fight for justice for Tyrone Noling! We are asking you to call and/or email one or all of these local politicians, asking them to get involved. Tyrone has been on Death Row for 26 years for a crime HE DID NOT COMMIT, he needs someone in power to intervene on his behalf.

Thank you in advance for your help to FREE TYRONE NOLING!

Please share far and wide! #freetyronenoling
Sherrod Brown (202) 224-2315
https://www.brown.senate.gov/contact/email

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (800) 282-0515
https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/About-AG/Contact

Governor Mike Dewine (614) 644-4357
https://governor.ohio.gov/contact

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Updates

FREE TYRONE NOLING SIGN CAMPAIGN

You may have seen one of Tyrone’s yellow or white signs. If that’s why you are here, thank you for taking the time to visit the website.

With the support of Tyrone’s attorneys and those who are close to him, we are hoping these signs will generate attention to his case. We also hope to bring forward any information helpful in bringing justice that will help FREE TYRONE NOLING.

Please call or text 234-720-0590 with any information you have about the 1990 Hartig murders on Moff Road in Atwater, OH.

A big thank you to those who have graciously shown support by putting signs in their yards and everyone else who has offered their help and support! It means more than you know!

If you want to learn more about Tyrone’s case, please see the video below:

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Articles & News Coverage

State should look at evidence as innocent man sits on death row for Portage County murders

Link to Article

Akron Beacon Journal (Opinion), Michael Douglas, Dec. 19, 2021

Tyrone Noling did not shoot and kill Cora and Bernhardt Hartig at their home in Atwater Township. Yet for the past quarter-century, half of his life, he has sat on death row, wrongly convicted of the murders.

Noling is no less than another victim, and he is running out of options for redressing this grave injustice.

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Media

Tyrone Noling Featured on Wrongful Convictions Podcast with Jason Flom

The outstanding podcast “Wrongful Convictions” presents the case of OIP client Tyrone Noling, still on Ohio’s Death Row. Says host Jason Flom: “This is one of the most twisted, entangled, nonsensical and, I’m going to say, evil #wrongfulconvictions I know of.”

Tyrone is now in his 28th year on Ohio’s Death Row. The number of inconsistencies, loopholes and loose ends revealed here will make your head spin. And it’s incredibly sad, but as the podcast reveals, there is testable evidence available that could be conclusive that the state continues to oppose on procedural grounds. OIP staff attorney Brian Howe, who works on Tyrone’s behalf, says, “The fact that Tyrone is innocent, which I am personally 100 percent convinced of … you know, I’m not familiar with every Death Row case in the country, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the strongest case of innocence of anyone currently on Death Row.” Howe also believes, “If he were to get a fair trial today, with all of the evidence we know in front of a jury, there’s no chance he’d be convicted.”
You also hear directly from Tyrone in this podcast, who is remarkably composed considering everything he has endured. Among other things, he says, “I think the most important thing here is, (be) a voice. I’m an innocent person on Ohio’s Death Row, and I don’t belong here and I need help. Now’s the time. This is difficult, it’s difficult pleading for your life, especially when you haven’t been heard for a long time. So I would just like to thank everybody and to encourage them to look into my case, to get involved, to be a voice for me and to help me get out of here, because I’m innocent.”
Link to Podcast
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Media

Tyrone Noling’s Case Featured in Season Premiere of Death Row Stories

Death Row Stories, a TV docu-series produced by a CNN affiliate and a team of Academy Award-winning directors, featured in its season premiere the story of the Hartig double murder and the facts and circumstances leading to Tyrone Noling’s eventual conviction for the crime.  The episode, titled “The Lost Boy,” aired on April 19, 2020, and spotlights Tyrone’s case for actual innocence.

The episode emphasizes that there is no physical evidence linking Tyrone to the Hartig murders, and neither the motive for the crime nor the state of the crime scene suggest Tyrone was involved in this crime in any fashion.  Instead, the state’s case against Tyrone has been driven by statements the state’s investigator, Ron Craig, elicited from Tyrone’s former friends and co-defendants, all of whom have recanted their testimony since Tyrone’s trial.  In emotional interviews, two of Tyrone’s co-defendants recount the tactics Mr. Craig used to coerce their statements, and discuss how those statements have put an innocent man on death row and continue to plague their consciences to this day.  The episode goes on to explore the compelling, new evidence that has come to light since the time of Tyrone’s trial, which points to alternative suspects who may have been responsible for the Hartig murders.

The episode is available for purchase on YouTube or Amazon and the episode is available on demand via your cable or satellite TV provider.  The current season of Death Row Stories is airing on HLN and streaming live for subscribers via CNNgo (at CNN.com/go and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Samsung Smart TV and Android TV) and on the CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android. 

As always, we urge any individuals with information regarding Tyrone Noling’s case or the Hartig murders to send an email to tyronenoling@gmail.com.

Categories
Litigation Update

Ohio Supreme Court Issues Mixed Decision on DNA Testing

On March 6, 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a ruling on Mr. Noling’s request for DNA testing. The decision provides Mr. Noling with the DNA profile from the cigarette butt, but denies Mr. Noling access to key DNA evidence, including scientifically appropriate testing that could conclusively identify the perpetrator of the crime.

A full copy of the decision can be read here.