In 2007, the OIP submitted a letter in support of executive clemency for Teddy Moseley, who had been serving an 11-year sentence in Scioto County, Ohio. In 2000, Moseley was convicted of two counts of aggravated vehicular assault and three counts of involuntary manslaughter after a jury found that he was driving at the time of a horrible car accident. As a result of these convictions, Moseley was sentenced to 11 years. 

The exact cause of the accident remains unknown, but whatever the cause, Moseley’s car spun out of control, crossed the center line and struck a minivan. Shortly after his conviction, three emergency responders and two civilian witnesses came forward indicating that they could have provided testimony at Moseley’s trial to support his claim that he was the backseat passenger in the accident. 

Specifically, the first EMT responder on the scene maintained that Moseley had been in the backseat of the car when she arrived at the scene shortly after the accident. Notwithstanding each of these witnesses’ ability and willingness to provide vital information to the investigation surrounding this accident, none of the witnesses were ever contacted by the police, despite the police’s knowledge of their presence at the scene shortly after the accident. 

Equally troubling was the failure of Moseley’s defense attorney at the time of trial to seek out statements from witnesses who would have bolstered the defense’s theory of the case. Despite this new evidence, when Moseley attempted to present this testimony in the form of a motion for new trial, the appellate court concluded that such testimony was merely cumulative and the failure to present such testimony was a result of the inconsequential incompetence of his defense lawyer. 

Former Governor Ted Strickland ultimately granted clemency to Moseley, and he was released from prison in December 2010. He had served 10 years of his 11-year sentence.

— taken from the Ohio Innocence Project Annual Report 2011