Ohio Death Penalty Information

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters can't kill kid, darn it!:  The Cincinnati Enquirer has this article, entitled "Teen indicted in toddler's death," on this morning's non-capital murder indictment of Derris Smith by a Hamilton County grand jury.

Bo Chamberlin opinion piece:  Bo Chamberlin has this opinion piece in The Ohio State University Lantern (student newspaper), entitled "Death penalty does not deliver justice," on the Troy Anthony Davis case in Georgia, and the recent botched execution of Christopher Newton in Ohio.

More on John Spirko reprieve #7 / life without parole an option?:  Alan Johnson has more details on yesterday's grant of reprieve to Ohio death row inmate John Spirko in this article in the Columbus Dispatch, entitled "Execution delayed for seventh time: Strickland bumps date to January '08; life without parole remains a possibility."  JIm Provance has this coverage in the Toledo Blade, entitled "Spirko gets 7th death-row reprieve; Defense hopes DNA will point to someone else in 1982 death."  Greg Sowinski has this coverage for the Lima News, entitled "Spirko given seventh reprieve."  Eleanore Hayes has this video coverage (1:25) for ONN/WBNS-TV (both owned by the Dispatch, btw).

Dispatch excerpts:
...Another option still available to state officials would allow Spirko, 61, to permanently escape the executioner and likely keep him imprisoned for the rest of his life.

Life without the possibility of parole is a sentencing option unavailable under Ohio law in 1983 when Spirko was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Mary Jane Mottinger, 48, postmistress in Elgin in northwestern Ohio.

...Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said life without parole has not been formally considered.

"The governor's office has not started a thorough review of the Spirko case, largely due to the large number of reprieves," Dailey said.

Ohio governors have broad clemency powers, including granting temporary reprieves, as Strickland did yesterday. The governor also can commute sentences to life with or without the possibility of parole, to time served or to a specific number of years. The governor also can grant full pardons.

...Alvin Dunn, one of Spirko's attorneys, said in an interview with the Ohio News Network that although his client still has legal options, "We believe his best hope is with the governor."

"We're very hopeful the new people will take a careful look at this," Dunn said. "There is far too much doubt to let an execution go forward."

...In March, Attorney General Marc Dann's office confirmed that the DNA tests had uncovered nothing that conclusively proved Spirko's guilt or innocence. The state's testing bill totaled $47,000.

"This is the only (death penalty) case that's totally dependent on circumstantial evidence," Dann said at the time. ...

• Earlier coverage of reprieve #7 granted to John Spirko yesterday by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland here.
• Additional earlier coverage of Spirko case is here.

Judge refuses to reconsider order for new trial for William Montgomery:  Erica Blake has this article in the Toledo Blade, entitled "U.S. judge stands by order for new trial: Ruling is upheld for inmate on death row," on yesterday's ruling by US District Court Judge Solomon Oliver refusing to reconsider his March 31, 2006 ruling (2-page pdf) ordering a new trial for Ohio death row inmate William Montgomery because of the discovery of evidence withheld at trail by Lucas County prosecutors.

Excerpt:
A federal judge, spurning a request by the state attorney general’s office, said yesterday he will not change his mind and reverse his ruling that granted a death-row inmate a new trial.

The attorney general’s office had filed a motion with Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr., that cited new evidence that would uphold the 1986 conviction of William T. Montgomery for the robbery and slaying of two Toledo women.

Judge Solomon, sitting on the bench in Cleveland, ruled March 31 that Lucas County prosecutors had withheld a critical police report that “was material to the outcome of the trial” and could have affected the trial’s outcome. ...

Earlier related posts:

• William T. Montgomery conviction and death sentence overturned
• State to appeal reversal of William Montgomery conviction and death sentence

Things get ugly in Ruben Rivera capital case hearing:  Matt Suman has this article in the Lorain Morning Journal, entitled "Contempt charge latest between judge, prosecutor," on yesterday's contempt hearing for Lorain County Asst. Prosecutor Tony Cillo in the Ruben Rivera capital case - apparently the latest chapter in an ongoing feud between Cillo and Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge James Burge.

Excerpt:
After Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge reduced Thomas Holmes sentence from 23 years to six years in prison in May, Assistant Prosecutor Tony Cillo said it was going to get ugly, according to Burge's court reporter.

And it did.
 
The tension that has been brewing for months between Cillo and Burge came to a head Thursday when Burge cited Cillo for contempt of court based on language Cillo used in a motion objecting to murder defendant Ronald McCloud's request to join another defendant in an argument that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Both murder suspects, Ruben Rivera, of Cleveland, and McCloud, of Lorain, face the death penalty, if convicted, and are still awaiting trial. ...

• Brad Dicken has this article in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram noting that Judge Burge has allowed the contempt citation against Cillo to be reviewed by another judge.

New study indicates blacks who kill whites most likely to be executed / New Gallup Poll examines racial divide in death penalty support:

• A new NSF-funded study co-authored by a team of sociologists from Ohio State University, McGill University and Cleveland State University indicates that - in a capital punishmenet system that executes fewer than ten percent of those sentenced to death - blacks, and to a lesser extent Hispanics, who kill whites are statistically much more likely to be executed than others sentenced to death.  These and other findings about those actually executed appear in a report entitled "Who Survives on Death Row? An Individual and Contextual Analysis," in the August edition of the American Sociological Review  (article viewable w/subsciription only).  Newswise has a summary of the report here (1-page text).

Summary excerpt:
“Examining who survives on death row is important because less than 10 percent of those given the death sentence ever get executed,” said David Jacobs, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University.

“The disparity in execution rates based on the race of victims suggests our justice system places greater value on white lives, even after sentences are handed down.”

This apparently is the first study to examine whether the race of murder victims affects the probability that a convicted killer gets the ultimate punishment, Jacobs said. ...

• The latest Gallup Poll numbers on the death penalty released yesterday show that the widest divergence by demographic group in attitudes toward the death penalty continues to fall along racial lines.  Yesterday's Gallup News Service release, entitled "Racial Disagreement Over Death Penalty Has Varied Historically: Whites consistently more supportive, but only occasionally have majority of blacks favored it," is here.  (Hat-tip: Capital Defense Weekly)

SEVENTH REPRIEVE GRANTED TO JOHN SPIRKO

In response to a request by attorneys for John Spirko for additional time to complete DNA testing on certain evidence in the case, and with no objection from the Ohio Attorney General, Governor Ted Strickland today issued a seventh execution reprieve for Spriko.  The execution date has been pushed back from September, 18, 2007 to January 24, 2008.

• Official warrant of reprieve is here (1-page pdf)
• Alan Johnson has this coverage on the Columbus Dispatch website.  AP has this.  (ONN reporter Eleanor Hayes did a phone interview with one of the Spirko attorneys; ONN coverage may be forthcoming.)

 

After flawed executions, states draw hoods tighter:  Adam Liptak has this article in the TimesSelect (i.e., pay to view) portion of New York Times, entitled "After Flawed Executions, States Resort to Secrecy."  (May be viewed for free by signing up for a TimesSelect 14-day free trial trial here.)

Intro:
After several botched executions, you might think that we would want to know more, not less, about the government employees charged with delivering death. ...

Note:  Courtesy of How Appealing, a temporary pass-through link to the full article is available here.

Excerpt:
...In the wake of several botched executions around the nation, often performed by poorly trained workers, you might think that we would want to know more, not less, about the government employees charged with delivering death on behalf of the state.

But corrections officials say that executioners will face harassment or worse if their identities are revealed, and that it is getting hard to attract medically trained people to administer lethal injections, in part because codes of medical ethics prohibit participation in executions.

The Missouri law addresses that point, too. It bars licensing boards from taking disciplinary actions against doctors or nurses who participate in executions.

The job of executioner has never been a high-status profession, of course, which accounts for the hoods that hangmen wore. But in the old days, as John D. Bessler wrote in a history of executions, killing condemned prisoners “called for no expertise apart from the ability to tie a knot.”

Lethal injections are different. They require executioners to insert catheters and to prepare three chemicals and inject them, in the right dosage and sequence, into intravenous lines. If the first chemical is ineffective as a sedative, the other two are torturous. ...

Bargaining with death in Washington State:  Gene Johnson has this AP article, entitled "Strategy changing on death penalty," examining the use of the death penalty almost exclusively as a bargaining chip by various Washington State prosecutors' offices.

Lull in Tulsa County, OK, capital sentencing:  Bill Braun has this story in the Tulsa World, entitled "6 capital cases in year: No one on death row," noting that no death sentences have been handed down in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, capital cases since May 2006.