( CNN ) -- An Ohio death row inmate who has repeatedly claimed his innocence was spared execution , after the state 's governor Thursday noted `` legitimate questions '' about evidence used to convict the man . Kevin Keith for now will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole . His legal appeals will continue , with lawyers claiming newly discovered evidence and discredited eyewitness testimony will ultimately exonerate him . Keith was convicted of the 1994 killings of three females , including a child , in an apartment in Bucyrus , 60 miles north of Columbus . He was scheduled to die by lethal injection September 15 , and had exhausted most of his federal and state court appeals . Gov . Ted Strickland , a Democrat , issued his commutation this week after a number of civil liberties and innocence groups urged he step in to prevent a possibly innocent man from being executed by the state . `` Clearly , the careful exercise of a governor 's executive clemency authority is appropriate in a case like this one , given the real and unanswered questions surrounding the murders for which Mr. Keith was convicted , '' said Strickland in a statement . `` Mr. Keith still has appellate legal proceedings pending which , in theory , could ultimately result in his conviction being overturned altogether . The governor added , however , that he believes `` it is far more likely that Mr. Keith committed these murders than it is likely that he did not . '' Strickland urged the courts to give a `` full , fair analysis '' of the issues raised in the appeal . He ignored the recommendations of the state 's parole board , which last month unanimously recommended against clemency . Keith 's lawyers applauded the governor 's decision , but promised to continue the fight to clear the inmate . `` Mr. Keith remains incarcerated for a crime he did not commit , and that crime remains unsolved , '' said a statement from his five-person legal team . `` The commutation to a life sentence does not lessen the need for justice to prevail . '' Prosecutors said the 46-year-old Keith had maliciously sprayed a home with gunfire , that left a 4-year-old dead , along with her mother and aunt . Three others were wounded but survived , including a man who later testified against the main suspect . At trial , the state argued one of the victims was the brother of an undercover police informant who had implicated Keith as a drug dealer . But Keith 's public defenders point to at least one other suspect , and say a detective in the case lied on the stand about how a survivor of the shooting identified Keith . His defense team also later presented alibi witnesses . Calls to the Crawford County prosecuting attorney 's office were not immediately returned . The issue of `` actual innocence '' and the rights of prisoners to challenge their sentences years after a trial will be argued next month at the U.S. Supreme Court . A Texas death row inmate wants DNA testing from evidence that had not been analyzed at the time of his trial , to try to prove he did not commit the crime . The Innocence Project , a New York-based legal clinic said 258 people have been exonerated through DNA testing and new evidence being uncovered , with their convictions being tossed out . Many defense attorneys have urged the courts to make it easier for inmates -- especially those facing execution -- to go to court to press for a new look at these innocence claims , including more sophisticated DNA testing of old evidence . `` It 's a win-win for the justice system . If he turns out to be guilty , we have the certainty of that fact with objective DNA science prior to the time that we carry out the ultimate punishment , '' said Nina Morrison , a staff attorney with the Innocence Project . `` And if he 's not guilty , obviously that 's something that we , and surely the state , would want to know prior to the time that an irrevocable penalty of execution is carried out. ``
Kevin Keith was scheduled to die by lethal injection in two weeks . Ohio 's governor changed the sentence to life in prison without parole for three killings . The governor cites `` legitimate questions '' about evidence in the case . But the governor adds he thinks it is `` far more likely '' than not that Keith committed the killings .