Innocents
on Death Row Watch:
Anthony Apanovitch
Submitted by Abraham Bonowitz of Citizens United Against the Death Penalty (CUADP)
Tony Apanovitch has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. He is a victim of the most serious miscarriage of justice. By the time the federal courts decide whether to even address the merits of Apanovitch's allegations that the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor and Cleveland Police Department withheld exculpatory evidence and misled the court, Apanovitch will have been incarcerated for more than fifteen years in jails and prisons in Ohio. He has spent most of that time on death row, where he is today among the segregated and isolated prisoners at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.
Anthony Apanovitch was convicted in Cleveland, Ohio for the August, 1984, murder and rape of Mary Ann Flynn. After a two month investigation, law enforcement targeted Apanovitch, even though the hair, blood and saliva samples he voluntarily provided excluded him as a suspect. The state's case at trial was built solely on circumstantial evidence.
In 1993, Apanovitch obtained portions of the Cleveland Police Department investigative file under the Ohio Public Records Act. Documents from that file, as well as information withheld by the Cuyahoga County Coroner, greatly undermines the jury verdict and raises serious doubt that Apanovitch committed the rape and murder.
After the Ohio courts summarily dismissed Apanovitch's challenges, he presented his claims to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. Apanovitch's request for an evidentiary hearing in the federal district court, or full briefing in the federal appeals court, has been pending since February, 1997.
Attorney representing Apanovitch:
Dale A. Baich
Assistant Federal Public Defender
222 North Central Avenue, Suite 810
Phoenix, Arizona 85004
602.379.3670
602.379.3681 facsimile
dalebaich@aol.com
For more details on his case, please visit http://www.cuadp.org/pers1.html
If you want to help Apanovitch get a new trial, please write to Governor Bob Taft of Ohio.
Make the following points in your own words:
* State that you are aware of the Apanovitch case from a recent series of articles and an editorial that appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
* Express concern that the Justice who wrote the 4-3 decision upholding the conviction changed his mind, and the trial judge nearly dismissed the case because of insufficient evidence.
* Express concern that prosecutors can get away with withholding evidence at trial, especially when the state gets a conviction and death sentence based on weak circumstantial evidence.
* Ask the governor to take a close look at the case and ask him to make a statement that Tony should receive a new trial.
Governor Bob Taft
77 South High Street, 30th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117
Please send a copy of your letter to Anthony's attorney:
Dale A. Baich
Assistant Federal Public Defender
222 North Central Avenue, Suite 810
Phoenix, Arizona 85004
602.379.3670
602.379.3681 facsimile
dalebaich@aol.com
For more information, read the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Reasonable doubts, December 18, 1999. An even better article may be found at http://www.clevescene.com
Contact Anthony Apanovitch directly:
Anthony C. Apanovitch 182-824
Mansfield Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 788
Mansfield, Ohio 44901