COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOWO) — The Ohio Parole Board is recommending that the death sentence of a man who has spent more than three decades behind bars for the murders of an elderly Portage County couple be commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The board recommended Aug. 25 that Gov. Mike DeWine commute Tyrone Noling’s death sentence to life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole beginning Jan. 1, 2029, according to NBC 4 in Columbus.

Noling, 54, has maintained for years that he did not kill Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig, an 81-year-old couple who were found shot to death inside their Atwater home in 1990.

The eight-member parole board split on the question of what should happen to Noling. Five members recommended commuting his death sentence, one recommended a full pardon and two voted against granting him relief.

The recommendation followed an Aug. 18 clemency hearing at which Noling asked the board for a full pardon.

Noling’s case has drawn renewed attention because several witnesses whose testimony helped lead to his conviction later recanted their accounts.

Noling was 18 when the Hartigs were killed on April 5, 1990. Their home had been ransacked, and investigators said Noling was part of a group involved in robberies targeting elderly couples in the area.

Three other people involved with the group, who were 14, 15 and 16 at the time, implicated Noling in the killings.

Those witnesses later changed or recanted their statements, saying police pressured them to identify Noling as the shooter.

Noling was ultimately convicted of the murders in 1996 and sentenced to death.

His attorneys have argued that there is no physical evidence tying him to the killings.

A handgun Noling owned was ruled out as the murder weapon, while a cigarette butt recovered from the Hartigs’ driveway did not match Noling’s DNA, according to testimony presented during the clemency proceedings.

Noling has acknowledged committing two aggravated robberies in Alliance in 1990, for which he was also convicted, but he has continued to deny involvement in the Hartig murders.

Another potential suspect was raised during the clemency hearing.

Nate Chesley testified that his foster brother, Dan Wilson, confessed to killing the Hartigs while the two were working on a car.

Chesley said he was 16 at the time and was afraid of Wilson. He later moved to another foster home.

Wilson was eventually executed in Ohio in 2009 for the 1991 murder of a 24-year-old woman.

“I do not know if I could live with myself if someone was executed because I ran,” Chesley told the board. “We were in fear for our lives in that home. I know Wilson killed the Hartigs.”

Prosecutors opposed Noling’s request for clemency.

Portage County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Eric Finnegan argued that the evidence ultimately pointed to Noling as the shooter and described him as a manipulator.

Finnegan also pointed to Noling’s criminal history, including allegations that he had threatened elderly robbery victims with guns in their homes.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office also questioned Chesley’s testimony.

Brenda Leikela, a principal assistant attorney general, questioned why Wilson never came forward with a confession while he was alive.

“It is convenient that Dan Wilson is now deceased,” Leikela said.

She also noted that Wilson and Noling had both been on death row and argued Wilson could have potentially used a confession to challenge his own execution.

The parole board’s report said members were not comfortable recommending that Noling be executed given the recanted testimony and questions surrounding whether alternative suspects were adequately investigated.

At the same time, the board stopped short of recommending a pardon.

The board cited Noling’s history of violence and said it believed additional programming would be appropriate before he could be considered for release.

The recommendation calls for Noling to complete programs including Victims Awareness before becoming eligible for consideration.

The board also said Noling “continues to show a lack of remorse, empathy and insight” regarding the robberies he admitted committing.

Noling has now spent approximately 37 years incarcerated, including time served for the aggravated robberies that preceded the Hartig murder case.

The parole board’s recommendation is not the final decision.

DeWine can accept the recommendation, grant Noling a full pardon, impose another form of sentence reduction or leave the death sentence in place.

DeWine has previously called for Ohio to abolish the death penalty. His position on the death penalty could add significance to the decision, but the governor’s office will make the final determination in Noling’s case.

For now, Noling remains incarcerated while the clemency process moves forward.

The case continues to center on a fundamental question that has followed Noling for decades: whether the evidence is sufficient to carry out a death sentence when key witnesses have recanted their testimony and questions remain about other possible suspects.