When 40 year old Tyrone Noling was convicted of killing a Portage County couple in 1996, DNA testing on a cigarette butt found in the driveway of the victims’ home excluded him as a suspect. But a test did not exclude a nearby resident, Daniel Wilson, who was later convicted of another murder. Noling’s legal team asked for a new DNA test in 2008, and then again after a 2010 law allowing some retesting of DNA passed because of improved technology. But the trial court refused, saying a defendant can’t ask for the same test twice. Carrie Wood with the Ohio Innocence Project says Noling deserves a new test to determine if the DNA on the cigarette is Wilson’s.

“Mr. Noling is innocent of the crime, and that he, at the very least, deserves a new trial. He does not deserve to be on death row.”

But Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci says because Noling was convicted on testimony, not DNA, a new test wouldn’t matter. Wilson was executed in 2009, but his DNA is in the state’s database.