A man who spent over 25 years on death row for the robbery and murder of a woman at an Ohio hotel had his case dropped by prosecutors on Friday.
Elwood Jones has been free since just after a judge granted him a new trial in December 2022, after prosecutors were deemed to have withheld relevant evidence from his defense years earlier.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said the case was dismissed after a months-long, thorough review of the evidence and court filings.
“I did not take this extraordinary step lightly,” Pillich stated. “But after examining the evidence, I am not convinced that Mr. Jones killed Rhoda Nathan.”
Jones was convicted of aggravated murder, robbery, and burglary in the 1994 beating death of Rhoda Nathan, a 67-year-old from Toms River, New Jersey, in Blue Ash, a suburb of Cincinnati.
Under a prior prosecutor, Melissa Powers, the office had appealed the judge’s decision, and that lawsuit continued through the courts.
Recently, the Ohio Supreme Court found the appellate court erred in blocking the challenge and sent the case back to the lower court for review. Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters, the former Hamilton County prosecutor who secured the original conviction, recused himself from that decision.
Pillich, however, indicated that pursuing a new trial without fresh evidence, witnesses, or current scientific analysis would be pointless.
The review addressed several issues: there was no physical or forensic link tying Jones to the murder; multiple witness statements suggested other potential suspects; and Jones’ defense did not receive a large volume of investigative materials before trial. Modern forensic testing has also ruled Jones out as a suspect.
Police had said that Nathan, a grandmother visiting from town for a Labor Day weekend bar mitzvah, was killed after surprising an attempted robber in her hotel room. Jones, an employee at the hotel, was on duty that day, according to investigators.
A comment request left with Jones’ attorney was not returned. Court documents show his lawyers argued that the trial court’s portrayal of the prosecutor’s office as pursuing a win-at-all-costs mentality “stole over 28 years from Elwood Jones — an innocent man — and nearly cost him his life.”
Pillich announced the creation of a Conviction Integrity Unit dedicated to examining wrongful convictions and unjust sentences in line with national best practices.
“Had such a unit existed years ago, this decision might have come to light much sooner,” she said.
Jones is the 12th death-row inmate exonerated in Ohio and the second from Hamilton County, according to Kevin Werner, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions, a group advocating the death-penalty repeal.
He noted that the public is growing disillusioned with wrongful convictions, underscoring the human toll on the Nathan and Jones families, both harmed by the state’s capital punishment system.
In related context:
- Cincinnati
- Homicide
- Ohio
- Crime
- Execution
