NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (CNS) - When Father Neil Kookoothe first met Joseph D'Ambrosio on Ohio's death row in December 1998, he intended to describe the funeral of the condemned man's mother.
D'Ambrosio would not listen, however. Another inmate had told him the priest had been a lawyer before ordination. Now, D'Ambrosio pleaded for help with his case.
"It's God's providence," D'Ambrosio, a lifelong Catholic, said recently of Father Kookoothe's unexpected entrance into his life.
A three-judge panel had convicted D'Ambrosio of murder in 1989 after a trial that lasted less than three days. No forensic evidence linked him to the crime and D'Ambrosio insisted he had not killed teenager Anthony Klann.
Father Kookoothe hesitated to help.
"My ministry on death row was never about getting involved in their cases," he said. "I simply wanted to companion some men who had been sentenced to death."
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