www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/09/former_death_row_inmate_michae_1.html QUOTE:
Former death row inmate Michael Keenan released from prisonSept. 6, 2012
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Former death row inmate Michael Keenan won his freedom Thursday after facing the prospect of a third trial for the 1988 murder of Tony Klann.
Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo dismissed a 24-year-old murder charge against Keenan and released the 62-year-old former Cleveland Heights resident on bond, pending an appeal by the state. He left prison about 5:30 p.m.
Russo's decision surprised those in the gallery because the previous day Keenan was prepared to plead guilty to a lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 1988 death of Tony Klann.
Keenan had been willing to accept the prosecutors' plea deal because it meant Russo would release him from prison immediately, but Keenan and his attorneys thought differently after learning Keenan also would face five years of parole.
Russo gave both sides until Thursday morning to explore other sentencing options, but by then Keenan and his attorneys had changed their minds.
"You gamble every once in a while," Keenan's attorney John B. Gibbons said after the hearing. "This one turned out well."
Both sides knew that if the plea negotiations collapsed, Russo was prepared to respond to Keenan's request to dismiss the case. Had Russo not dismissed the case, a trial was scheduled for Oct. 31, which would have been the third time Keenan was tried for Klann's murder.
Keenan and co-defendant Joe D'Ambrosio were convicted of murdering Klann, whose body was found floating in Doan Brook in Rockefeller Park. Both spent years on death row, but always professed their innocence.
Keenan did so again on Thursday in an interview inside a holding cell after the hearing. He seemed elated, but was still processing what had just transpired.
"It hasn't sunk in at all," he said.
He said he considered accepting the prosecutor's plea deal primarily because he felt pressure from his family, who wanted him out of prison.
Russo said his order did not reflect his view of Keenan's guilt or innocence, but only on Keenan's ability to receive a fair trial.
A federal judge overturned D'Ambrosio's conviction in 2006 while another federal judge did the same for Keenan last April.
Keenan, whose long, straight hair has turned white in prison, wore orange prison clothing as he sat, wrists cuffed, between his lawyers. He smiled as it became apparent that Russo was about to dismiss the charge. The decision disappointed county prosecutors.
"We plan to appeal and pursue justice for Tony Kann and his father Dick Klann," Assistant County Prosecutor Aaron Brockler told Russo.
Dick Klann sat expressionless in the gallery as Russo read the order dismissing the charge against Keenan. He left shortly before the hearing ended, escorted out by a representative of the County Prosecutor's Office.
A Catholic priest who befriended D'Ambrosio in prison and was convinced of his innocence worked with lawyers to uncover evidence favorable to both defendants that had been withheld by prosecutors at trial.
That evidence included police statements that concluded Klann could not have been killed at Doan Brook as the prosecutors' only eyewitness claimed.
Eddie Espinoza, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Klann's death and received a reduced sentence, testified at their trials that Keenan slit Klann's throat and D'Ambrosio stabbed him in the chest.
Espinoza died in 2009, eight years after he was released from prison. Russo ruled his prior testimony inadmissible in a new trial because Keenan's attorneys would be unable to question him in light of the new evidence.
The withheld evidence also included information that Paul Lewis, the man who lead police to Keenan, D'Ambrosio and Espinoza, had a possible motive for killing Klann.
Lewis had been charged with raping Klann's roommate and Klann had been subpoenaed to testify.
One of Keenan's four brothers, Patick Keenan, watched the hearing from the gallery. He remained in the Justice Center for several hours, anticipating his brother's release on bond. He brought with him a gold chain attached to two pendants, one of the face of Jesus, the other a heart-shaped locket that contained ashes from their deceased parents.
Patrick Keenan said he planned to place the chain around his brother's neck.
'Patrick said Michael will work for him upon his release and live with another brother, Martin Keenan, of Cleveland Heights.