Doug Prade has spent around 25 years in prison, all while maintaining his innocence.
AKRON, Ohio — Wednesday afternoon, Doug Prade — the former Akron Police Captain convicted of murdering his ex-wife Margo in 1997 — is set to appear before the Ohio Parole Board.
Prade has spent around 25 years in prison, all while maintaining his innocence.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections says the parole board will make a recommendation at the hearing that will then have to go through a quality assurance review. Once the review is complete, the state will share the outcome.
BACKGROUND
In November 1997, 41-year-old Dr. Margo Prade was found dead inside her minivan in the parking lot of her medical practice. Investigators discovered she’d been shot six times, and they also identified the impression of a bite mark on the lab coat she was wearing when she was killed.
Doug Prade, Margo’s ex-husband and a former Akron police captain, was arrested for the killing. In September 1998, a jury convicted Prade of aggravated murder and other charges.
Prade was sentenced to life in prison with the chance of parole, but in 2013, a Summit County judge overturned his conviction based on new DNA evidence showing the bite mark impression on Margo’s lab coat excluded his genetic markers. He was released after spending 15 years in prison.
“This has been a crazy day, but you guys seem to forget: I spent 15 years in hell,” Prade told reporters at the time.
His supporters and advocates, including his legal team from the Ohio Innocence Project, celebrated his freedom. Meanwhile, friends and family of Margo were devastated and angry, as were those who tried and convicted Prade.
“The bite mark, in our view, is garbage, and we’ve submitted expert evidence from bite mark experts who say it’s garbage,” a county prosecutor said.
The state got its wish, and in 2014, another judge overturned the decision. Prade was forced to return to prison after 18 months of freedom.
Prade’s attorneys have not stopped fighting to overturn the conviction, but those attempts have not changed Prade’s status. In 2019, they suffered another blow when the U.S. Supreme Court denied Prade’s petition for a new trial.
