Justice For Arthur Tyler

by Regina Brett /Plain Dealer Columnist

Wednesday January 28, 2009,

Eddie Sanders doesn't want the state to execute the man who killed his sister. Eddie doesn't want to lose another family member.

Eddie knows there's a saint inside the worst of us and a sinner inside the best of us. His sister, Emma Dee Hill, was a bit of both. The woman who loved God and church and believed life was a precious gift once took a gun to the family reunion.

She used to lock the refrigerator to keep her two boys from eating. But she loved her sons so much that Jeffrey dropped out of high school to take care of her when a stroke paralyzed her right side.

Eddie knows that Jeffrey loved her, except for that horrible time in his life when he loved crack cocaine more.

Jeffrey turned to crack after his dad died of cancer.

One night, Jeffrey binged on $400 worth of cocaine. That night 18 years ago, he lost his mind.

When it came back, he learned he had stabbed his mother to death. Eddie never forgot the sight of his 26-year-old nephew weeping in a jail cell, begging for forgiveness. Eddie gave it. It took a long time.He loved his sister.

On Thursday, Eddie will travel to Columbus to beg for his nephew's life.

A dozen jurors convicted Jeffrey of aggravated murder in 1992.

Back then, the prosecutor offered no plea bargain. The jury had two choices: Acquit and he would go free; find him guilty and he would be sentenced to death.

A dozen relatives of the murdered woman want Jeffrey's sentence commuted.

He is scheduled to die March 3.

They wrote the Ohio Parole Board begging for mercy, calling themselves "a small family who has endured a huge tragedy." They never imagined they would have to plead for the life of one of their own convicted for the murder of one of their own.

Eddie, who is 65, traveled from Cincinnati to Youngstown to see his nephew. "He's a changed man," Eddie said.

Jeffrey had no prior adult felony convictions. He got in some trouble as a teen once and ended up in a boys home.

Eddie couldn't remember the details. The attorneys fighting for clemency compare this case to a man who stabbed to death his dad while on a crack cocaine binge in 1992.

Jackie Smith was convicted and sentenced in Hamilton County, the same as Hill, but got 15 years to life. Smith served 13 of them and was released on parole in 2006.

Jeffrey's attorney waived his opening statement and presented no witnesses. He hired a psychologist to talk about Jeffrey's crack addiction, but not until the night before the sentencing trial.

The Hamilton County prosecutor opposes commutation, stating the jury "felt that capital sentence was appropriate."

But he knows they might have chosen differently had they been given the option of life without parole.

The governor has that option. Jeffrey, who is 44, has served 16 years

 He goes before the parole board for a clemency plea Thursday at 10 a.m. in Columbus.

Eddie said no one in the family wants him to die. "He's paid," Eddie said. "He'll always have it on his mind that he killed his mom. I'm hoping they say life in prison.

Emma woulda felt bad if we would sit by and not do something for him." Executing Jeffrey Hill, their nephew, their brother, their cousin, would only bring Emma's family more pain.

Commuting his sentence to life harms no one. It would be a tremendous act of mercy and grace, one this family surely deserves.

For previous columns visit cleveland.com/brett