Скачать или смотреть The Lexi Show: From the Pulpit to Prison (With Ex-Pastor Donald Miller)

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, in one of his final official acts before leaving office on January 9, 2011 acted on nine clemency applications from northwest Ohio inmates, including a sentence commutation for a former minister who was convicted in 1993 after a high-profile trial in Defiance County. The sentence of Donald Miller, a former minister from Defiance who was serving a seven-to-25-year sentence, was commuted and he was ordered released. Miller was convicted in Defiance County Common Pleas Court of one count of rape, child endangering, aggravated theft, and more than 11 counts of sexual battery. In 1995 the 3rd District Court of Appeals in Lima overturned the child-endangering and aggravated-theft convictions and one count of sexual battery because of insufficient evidence. Miller's early attempts at seeking parole were unsuccessful, despite hundreds of letters from supporters sent to the parole board. A motion for a new trial filed in 1996 was rejected. In his remarks from January 2011 the governor said, "After careful and diligent examination of the totality of the materials available to me, I believe that Donald Miller has demonstrated that he has been rehabilitated and has assumed the responsibilities of citizenship. A full and unconditional pardon is warranted. The governor granted the clemency over the recommendation from the parole board, which said Miller should complete his sentence. Miller was ordered to be released from custody. During his trial, prosecutors described Miller as a charismatic, cult-like Pentecostal leader of the Word of Life Church who used his influence as minister and church counselor to force women to have sex with him. His lawyers said the sex was consensual and no crime took place. In his statement, Mr. Strickland said in the case of a commutation, the sentence imposed for the crime "represented a fundamental injustice or was so overly disproportionate" to similar convictions that a modification of the sentence was warranted.