16 March 2010 :

Joe D'Ambrosio, once on death row on murder charge, now free after Judge Joan Synenberg dropped all charges against him. In a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas courtroom, Judge Synenberg declared D'Ambrosio a free man, ending more than 21 years of incarceration - mostly on death row -for a crime he has always said he didn't commit. D'Ambrosio, 48, white, marched from the justice center to the nearby probation offices to have an electronic bracelet removed from his ankle, the last vestige of his imprisonment. D'Ambrosio's newfound freedom is the culmination of a long struggle to win the release of a man several judges ruled was denied justice by prosecutors. Two days ago U.S. District Judge Kate O'Malley ruled D'Ambrosio cannot be retried for the Sept. 1988 killing of Tony Klann. Several judges have ruled D'Ambrosio likely would not have been convicted if prosecutors turned over several pieces of evidence that could have exonerated him, as they are required to do. the rev. Neil Kookoothe, the catholic priest whose investigative work lead to the discovery of evidence that freed D'Ambrosio, couldn't hold back his emotions after Synenberg dismissed the charges. Timeline of events: Sept. 24, 1988: A jogger finds Tony Klann's body. Sept. 26, 1988: Joe D'Ambrosio and Eddie Espinoza are arrested. Feb. 6, 1989: A three-judge panel convicts D'Ambrosio. Eddie Espinoza and Paul Lewis testify against D'Ambrosio. He is later sentenced to the death penalty. Aug. 23, 1993: Ohio Supreme Court upholds D'Ambrosio's conviction. January 1998: D'Ambrosio gives his trial transcript to the Rev. Neil Kookoothe. Nov. 25, 2002: U.S. District Judge Kate O'Malley orders all records and evidence from D'Ambrosio and Lewis cases turned over to Ohio public defender's office for examination. March 25, 2006: O'Malley rules D'Ambrosio is entitled to a retrial. June 6, 2008: A federal appeals court upholds O'Malley's ruling and orders D'Ambrosio must be let out of prison and given a new trial. Sept. 11, 2008: O'Malley rules D'Ambrosio must be tried in 180 days or released. March 2009: Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joan Synenberg sets D'Ambrosio's bond at $50,000. He is allowed to live in an apartment in Parma under house arrest. O'Malley later extends the 180-day trial deadline after ruling prosecutors again withheld evidence from D'Ambrosio. April 26, 2009: Edward Espinoza, the main witness against D'Ambrosio, dies. April 30, 2009: Prosecutors learn Espinoza, their star witness, is dead. July 2009: Prosecutors inform O'Malley Espinoza has died. Aug. 14, 2009: D'Ambrosio files a motion asking O'Malley to block his retrial, arguing the death of Espinoza denies him a fair trial because he cannot challenge Espinoza's account of the killing with the withheld evidence. March 3, 2010: O'Malley grants D'Ambrosio's motion, ruling that he cannot be retried. She notes that Espinoza's death, which came after the 180-day deadline she set, precludes D'Ambrosio from getting a fair trial. March 5, 2010: Synenberg dismisses the murder charge against D'Ambrosio and orders him released. Prosecutors appeal O'Malley's ruling. Michael Keenan was tried separately and also was found guilty and sentenced to die. He maintains his innocence, too, but remains on death row pending appeal. Edward Espinoza, the third person charged with killing Klann, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in exchange for testifying against D'Ambrosio and Keenan. He served 12 years in prison and was released in 2001. The turning point for D'Ambrosio came in 1998 when he met Kookoothe, who trained as a lawyer before becoming a priest. Kookoothe looked into D'Ambrosio's case and found several concerns. Further investigation determined the person who directed police to D'Ambrosio had his own motive for killing Klann. Physical evidence also suggested Klann had not been stabbed to death at Doan Brook in Cleveland's Rockefeller Park, as Espinoza testified, but that Klann was killed elsewhere and his body dumped in the stream.