Ohio Gov. John Kasich has denied convicted murderer Mark Wayne Wiles’ clemency request, clearing the way for his execution next Wednesday unless the courts intervene.
Wiles, 49, is scheduled to die by lethal injection April 18 for stabbing 15-year-old Mark Klima at his family’s farm in 1985, according to the
Columbus Dispatch. A group of more than 200 religious leaders wanted the governor to commute Wiles’ sentence to life without parole.
The Ohio Parole Board had already voted unanimously against clemency for Wiles before Kasich was asked by his lawyers to commute his sentence to life without parole. Kasich was his last hope, unless Wiles’ lawyers are successful in new court appeals for a stay of execution.
Just Last week, U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost cleared the way for executions in Ohio to proceed after he had imposed a moratorium lasting several months to consider complaints that Ohio prison officials had not followed proper execution protocols and procedures for carrying out lethal injections.
In a decision allowing the Wiles’ execution to proceed, he wrote that he was “willing to trust Ohio, just enough to permit the scheduled execution.”
If it takes place, Wiles would be the first death row inmate since last November to be executed in Ohio. The state, according the Columbus Dispatch, has one death row inmate scheduled to die every month from now through early 2014.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.