Strangling

Jon Offredo is fighting to keep Clinton Dickens, convicted alongside Richard Cooey in the 1986 kidnapping, rape and murder of Offredo's sister Wendy and her friend Dawn McCreery in Akron, Ohio, behind bars. Dickens, who was 17 at the time, was originally ineligible for parole until 2071, but a 2021 law, Senate Bill 256, allowed juvenile offenders earlier parole eligibility, letting him seek release after about 35 years served. His 2022 bid was denied, and he faces a new hearing in mid-November. Offredo and supporters have petitioned against his release, while critics say the law's exceptions, carved out to exclude a notorious school shooter, are inconsistent and blindsided victims' families.

A federal judge in Cleveland sentenced Samuel Saxon, 47, former assistant field office director of ICE's Cincinnati sub-office, to 21 months in prison for lying to a federal agent about attacking his girlfriend. Saxon, who joined ICE in 2005, pleaded guilty in April. Prosecutors detailed years of alleged abuse, including strangulation, broken bones and death threats, and said Cincinnati police responded to his home roughly two dozen times without Saxon reporting it to ICE as required. He was arrested in December 2025 after a neighbor reported him choking the woman, then denied seeing her in person. Related domestic violence charges remain pending in state court.

The Ohio Domestic Violence Network reported 134 intimate partner-related deaths from July 2025 through June 2026, the second-highest total in the 11 years it has tracked such fatalities. The figure is down from a record 157 deaths the prior year, but the two years combined mark the deadliest period on record. Nearly half of victims were killed while attempting to leave their relationships, almost double the 2024 rate. Guns caused 75% of deaths; 53 children witnessed a parent's murder, a 47% increase. Shelter capacity has not kept pace with demand, with more than half of emergency shelter requests going unmet last year. Lawmakers were honored for sponsoring related protective legislation.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has withdrawn the death warrant for William Lee Thompson, 74, the first time he has reversed a signed execution order since taking office. Thompson had been scheduled to die Tuesday for the 1976 murder, kidnapping and sexual battery of Sally Ivester in Dade County. DeSantis gave no reason in his Thursday letter to the Florida State Prison warden, but the move follows reports from Thompson's attorneys that he suffers from dementia, heart failure and declining cognitive capacity, including not recognizing he had been sentenced to death. DeSantis had previously ordered a psychiatric panel to evaluate Thompson's sanity after counsel argued he could not understand his impending execution. The Florida Supreme Court had denied a stay hours before DeSantis acted. Thompson remains on death row and could receive a new warrant later.

A second execution scheduled for the same day, James Robertson, 63, convicted of killing his cellmate in 2008, is still set to proceed. The reversal comes amid heightened scrutiny of capital punishment nationally following Tennessee's botched execution attempt of Christa Pike.

A bipartisan Ohio Safer Communities Legislative Working Group has released a report calling for major reforms to the state's domestic violence laws, following what it identified as Ohio's deadliest year in at least a decade for intimate partner violence — 157 fatalities, including 95 victims and 62 perpetrators. Domestic violence affects roughly 189,000 Ohioans annually and costs the state more than a billion dollars a year.

Recommendations include standardizing police risk assessments for survivors, expanding trauma-informed forensic nursing, mandating training to recognize strangulation as a predictor of lethal violence, and eliminating Ohio's statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases — a change advocates say would align Ohio with 44 other states. The group also backs Senate Bill 421, which would extend the civil statute of limitations for reporting sexual assault from one year to five, with some advocates pushing to abolish such limits entirely. Legislators say the report will guide the incoming governor and General Assembly, with legislation possible before year's end.

Two Kentucky adults face attempted murder and other charges after two young girls, ages 6 and 8, allegedly suffered repeated physical abuse, including strangulation, in Gallatin County. The case drew scrutiny after school officials reported suspected abuse on Aug. 28, when the girls arrived with bruising and marks later described in court records as concealed with makeup. A state child-welfare worker reportedly directed the school to send the children home despite objections from the school and law enforcement; investigators allege the girls were abused again in the roughly 30 minutes before deputies arrived.

Kyle Reynolds, 23, faces four attempted murder counts along with strangulation, assault and criminal abuse charges. His girlfriend, Phyllis Culp, 29, faces related charges including complicity. Both girls were hospitalized and underwent forensic interviews describing ongoing physical abuse. A judge found probable cause to send the case to a grand jury and set bonds at $1 million for each defendant. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has not responded to questions about its handling of the initial report.

Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was executed by lethal injection Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke, becoming the state's 15th person put to death this year. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after a three-drug injection, roughly 12 minutes after the process began. Conahan declined to make a final statement.

Conahan was convicted in 1999 of the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded area of Charlotte County, part of a string of killings dubbed the "Hog Trail Murders" after at least six bodies, mostly homeless men, were discovered in the area over several years. Investigators identified Conahan as a person of interest in the other deaths but never charged him. Eleven victim family members witnessed the execution.

Florida, under outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis, has carried out more than half of the 25 U.S. executions this year and leads the nation's death chamber activity. Another Florida execution, of Curtis Wilkie Beasley, is scheduled for September 29.