The Dayton Branch NAACP is asking Gov. Mike DeWine to commute the life sentence of China Arnold, the Dayton mother serving life without parole in the 2005 death of her 4-week-old daughter, Paris Talley, according to the Dayton Weekly’s reporting on the branch’s letter.
In a six-page letter dated Oct. 26, branch President Dr. Derrick L. Foward asked the governor to grant Arnold executive clemency and release her, the Dayton Weekly reported. As an alternative, Foward asked DeWine to shorten her sentence to a term that would make her eligible for release under supervision, and to ensure her case receives a full review of her rehabilitation, conduct and family circumstances.
Foward wrote that he recently visited Arnold at Dayton Correctional Institution and that the meeting affected him deeply, according to the Dayton Weekly’s account of the letter. He wrote to DeWine, as quoted by the Dayton Weekly: “I am not asking you to overturn the jury’s verdict” — arguing instead that clemency is a separate authority the governor holds.
The letter, as reported by the Dayton Weekly, emphasizes that Arnold also has three other children who have grown up without her, and notes that she maintains her innocence. Foward also pointed to what he described as sentencing disparities in other Ohio cases involving the deaths of infants, the Dayton Weekly reported.
Paris Talley died on Aug. 30, 2005, in Dayton. Arnold’s case went to trial three times, with a possible death sentence considered each time, before a jury convicted her of aggravated murder again on May 13, 2011, and she was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, according to the case history published by the Dayton Weekly. The conviction was affirmed on appeal in December 2013, and the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal in May 2014.
Executive clemency is the remaining path in the case. In Ohio, the governor holds the power to commute a sentence, with clemency applications typically reviewed by the Ohio Parole Board before a recommendation reaches the governor’s office, the Dayton Weekly reported. The letter was copied to the branch’s executive committee, Ohio Conference NAACP President Tom Roberts and attorney Jon Paul Rion, who represented Arnold at trial, according to the Dayton Weekly.
What happens next rests with the governor’s office: there is no public deadline for a clemency decision, and DeWine’s office had not announced a response to the Oct. 26 letter in the Dayton Weekly’s reporting. NewsForce247 will update this story if the governor’s office or the Parole Board acts on the request.
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