TOLEDO, Ohio — A lawyer in Ohio says a death row inmate who apparently hanged himself over the weekend didn’t know his legal team had just received new information about his case that could have delayed his execution.
Billy Slagle was pronounced dead Sunday after he was found in his cell at the Chillicothe (chil-ih-KAHTH’-ee) Correctional Institution. A coroner says preliminary autopsy results are consistent with suicide.
Slagle’s attorneys found out late Friday that prosecutors had offered their client a plea deal before his 1988 trial but that Slagle’s former attorneys didn’t tell him about the offer. The Columbus Dispatch first reported their discovery.
Slagle’s attorneys say they were planning to ask the Ohio Supreme Court on Monday to stop the execution. It had been scheduled for Wednesday.
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