After spending over 25 years on death row for the robbery and murder of a woman at an Ohio hotel, Elwood Jones had all charges against him dismissed by prosecutors this past Friday.

Jones had been out of prison since December 2022 when a judge approved a new trial, citing that crucial evidence had not been disclosed to his legal team in the original proceedings.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich explained that the decision to dismiss the case came after a thorough review of evidence and court records that lasted several months.

“This was not a decision made lightly,” Pillich stated. “Upon examining the evidence, I cannot say with certainty that Mr. Jones was responsible for the death of Rhoda Nathan.”

Jones had been initially convicted of aggravated murder, robbery, and burglary related to the 1994 death of 67-year-old Rhoda Nathan from Toms River, New Jersey, at a hotel in Blue Ash, a suburb of Cincinnati.

Under Pillich’s predecessor, Melissa Powers, the prosecutor’s office had appealed the judge’s decision and that lawsuit was still moving through the courts.

Just last week, the Ohio Supreme Court had found the appellate court erred in blocking the challenge and returned it to the lower court for reconsideration. Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters, the former Hamilton County prosecutor who secured the original conviction against Jones, recused himself from that decision.

But Pillich said going forward with a new trial without evidence, witnesses or up-to-date science “would be futile.”

Among issues addressed by her review were: the lack of physical or forensic evidence directly linking Jones to the murder; a lack of sufficient follow-up on multiple witness statements pointing to alternative suspects; and failure to provide Jones’ defense with a large volume of investigatory material before trial. Modern-day medical testing has also excluded Jones as a suspect.

Police had said that Nathan, a grandmother in town over the Labor Day weekend to attend the bar mitzvah of her best friend’s grandson, was killed after she surprised a would-be robber in her room. Jones was an employee at the hotel and was on the job that day, police said.

A message seeking comment was left with Jones’ attorney. In court filings, his defense team argued that what the trial court portrayed as a “win-at-all-cost mentality” at the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office “stole over 28 years from Elwood Jones — an innocent man — and it very nearly cost him his life.”

Pillich said she is establishing a Conviction Integrity Unit to search and review claims of wrongful conviction and unjust sentencing using national best practices.

“Had such a unit existed years ago, this decision may have been reached much sooner,” she said.

Jones is the 12th death row inmate exonerated in Ohio and the second from Hamilton County, said Kevin Werner, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions, which seeks a repeal of the death penalty.

He said the public is fed up with wrongful convictions.

“We’re thinking of the Nathan family and we’re thinking of the Jones family, both who were irreparably harmed by Ohio’s death penalty system,” he said in a statement.