CINCINNATI, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A convicted child killer is seeking release from an Ohio prison, but the prosecutor who helped convict him says he deserves to stay jailed.
The 1993 beating death of 15-month-old Star Hollingsworth by her mother's boyfriend, James Doan, resulted in Doan's sentence of 20 years to life.
The incident, and a similar incident in which Richard Klein burned a child, 12, of his girlfriend and received a 31-year sentence, so angered Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters that Deters worked to change Ohio's death penalty law, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday.
Those who kill children under age 13 can now receive the death penalty, according to a state law passed in 1997
Doan has applied for release from prison, but Deters and the judge who sentenced Doan, County Common Pleas Judge Nobert Nadel, insist Doan stays in prison.
"For what he [Doan] did, he should never breathe free air again," Nadel said last week.
"Doan should be on death row awaiting execution, not being considered for release," Deters told the newspaper, angered by the severity of the victim's injuries. "It was a slow, painful death for that little girl."
Her injuries, especially to her genitalia, were so horrific Doan was later declared a sexual predator, although he was not convicted of a sex crime, Deters noted.
Doan's parole hearing is scheduled for Nov. 16 at the correctional facility in Lima, where he is housed.
