Gov. John Kasich granted clemency to Ronald Post last year on the grounds that he had poor legal representation.

Kasich said at the time that all criminal defendants deserve an adequate defense, while saying the decision shouldn’t be viewed as diminishing the heinousness of Post’s crime.

Kasich’s decision was unrelated to Post’s better-known argument, that he was too fat to be executed humanely.

The Morning Journal of Lorain reported Friday that Michael Vantz, the oldest son of fatal robbery victim Helen Vantz, hopes to meet with Kasich next month.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said he was unaware of a similar meeting in the past.

Kasich followed a recommendation of mercy by the state parole board, which said it didn’t doubt Ronald Post’s guilt but said there were too many problems with how he was represented 30 years ago.

Kasich said Monday that Post’s sentence of death was being commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Post was sentenced to die for the 1983 shooting death of Elyria motel clerk Helen Vantz in a robbery.

Post’s lawyers had also argued that he was so obese that executing him would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Click the play button above to hear attorneys for Ronald Post, and reaction from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and death penalty advocates.