Ohio Death Penalty Information

ABA Report Finds Numerous Serious Flaws In Ohio's Capital Punishment System / Calls for Governor to Declare Moratorium Pending Death Penalty Study

As part of the American Bar Association's series of comprehensive studies of several states' death penalty systems, the ABA's Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Report was released today, finding numerous serious flaws in the implementation of Ohio's system of capital punishment - and calling on Governor Strickland to halt executions pending the outcome of a study to determine if the system can be corrected.  A breakdown of the report - by far the most comprehensive and scientific look at how Ohio's death penalty is working - is on the ABA website here, and as follows... 

Major sections of the report:

• Executive Summary of the Ohio Death Penalty Report (42-page pdf)
• Full Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Report (495-page pdf)
• Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Guide (88-page Word doc.)
• Ohio Death Penalty Assesment Team Biographies (4-page Word doc.)
• Fact Sheet: Problems with Ohio's Death Penalty System and Recommendations for Reform (2-page Word doc.)
• Compliance Charts: Ohio's Compliance with ABA Recommendations (18-page Word doc.)
• Frequently Asked Questions [about ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project] (8-page Word doc.)

Excerpt from Executive Summary (pp. 4-8):
The Team has concluded that the State of Ohio fails to comply or is only in partial compliance with many of these recommendations and that many of these shortcomings are substantial. More specifically, the Team is convinced that there is a need to improve the fairness and accuracy in Ohio’s death penalty system.

…Despite the best efforts of a multitude of principled and thoughtful actors who play roles in the criminal justice process in the State of Ohio, our research establishes that at this point in time, the State of Ohio cannot ensure that fairness and accuracy are the hallmark of every case in which the death penalty is sought or imposed. Basic notions of fairness require that all participants in the criminal justice system ensure that the ultimate penalty of death is reserved for only the very worst offenses and defendants. It is therefore the conclusion of the members of the Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Team that the State of Ohio should impose a temporary suspension of executions until such time as the State is able to appropriately address the issues and recommendations throughout this Report, and in particular the Executive Summary. ...

Update:   Andrew Welsh-Huggins has this early AP coverage of today's report, entitled "Bar association calls for Ohio to suspend death penalty system."  Jim Provance has this coverage on the Toledo Blade website, entitled "American Bar Association calls for Ohio to cease executions until it fixes problems."

AP excerpt:
Ohio should temporarily suspend executions to allow a review of the state's capital punishment system because of several flaws, including racial and geographic imbalances, a team of lawyers concluded in a study to be released Monday.

Too many defendants don't get adequate legal help and ways to guard death row inmates' rights are missing from the system, such as failing to require that all DNA evidence from a case is preserved while an offender is on death row, according to a 30-month review of Ohio's death penalty system by the American Bar Association.

The ABA team called on Gov. Ted Strickland to halt executions to allow a review of the system.

"The state fails to provide adequate measures to protect defendants," ABA President William Neukom said in a statement. "Nobody should be executed until the problems identified by these experts are addressed, and we urge a temporary halt to executions until fairness and accuracy are assured."

Among other findings, the ABA concluded:

_The state's system is flawed by racial disparities in death penalty sentencing, including a greater likelihood of defendants being sentenced to death if a victim is white.

_There are major differences in how counties sentence death row cases, for example, a defendant in Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, is far more likely to receive a death sentence than a defendant in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland.

_Death sentences are being imposed and carried out on people with severe mental disabilities.

_The state's appeals system does not allow for a meaningful comparison of cases to determine if a defendant deserves a death sentence based on other similar cases.

Strickland, a Democrat and death penalty supporter, has allowed two executions to proceed since taking office in January. A message was left seeking comment Monday morning. ...

Ohio death-penalty study? Various voices: #5

Cleveland Plain Dealer calls for Ohio death-penalty study, wrongful conviction commission:  The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this editorial, entitled "Raising the quality of justice."

Excerpt:

When the state of Ohio put James Filiaggi to death last month, at least there was no doubt that he had killed his former wife, Lisa, in 1994. He never denied it; his defense was based on his mental state, not an alibi. Finally, Filiaggi seemed resigned to paying the ultimate price.

But others on death row, in Ohio and throughout the country, maintain their innocence to the bitter end. Most are doubtless lying, perhaps even to themselves. But a society that imposes capital punishment - a sentence this editorial board has long opposed - must always ask: What if this person is innocent? Could there be a greater miscarriage of justice than the state taking a life in error?

...Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann says he is open to suggestions that might improve the quality of justice. He also says it might be time for the state to examine the death penalty with an eye to whether it serves the interests of crime victims and society. That would be useful, as would a review panel to follow up on wrongful convictions.

If Ohio, or any other state, wants to be in the execution business, it had better be sure that those on death row belong there.

Ohio death-penalty study? Various voices: No. 4

Regina Brett column calls for Ohio death penalty study:  Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Regina Brett has this column, entitled "Death penalty needs closer look."

In entirety:
Ohio, the heart of it all, might have a soul, too.

The new governor revealed it when he put executions on hold last week.

Gov. Ted Strickland wanted more time to consider clemency, a word not found in his predecessor's vocabulary.

As an ordained minister and former prison psychologist, the new governor must find it distasteful to execute human beings as punishment.

He was right to put the death penalty on hold. Even the state's new attorney general has concerns over whether the death penalty is applied fairly.

It isn't. Who gets sentenced to death is often based on race, place, poverty, poor prosecutors and the politics of plea bargains.

The Associated Press analyzed 1,936 indictments reported to the Ohio Supreme Court from the time the death penalty was enacted in 1981 through 2002. In liberal Cuyahoga County, 8 percent of capital crime offenders got the death penalty. In conservative Hamilton County, 43 percent got it.

Only 12 percent of Ohio's population is black, yet half of those on Ohio's death row are black.

About 90 percent of those who are facing capital charges can't afford an attorney.

Then there are the prosecutorial errors and misconduct:

John Spirko was convicted of aggravated murder in 1984. There was no physical evidence, plus a prosecutor hid vital evidence from Spirko's attorneys and the jury. The investigator who testified that Spirko confessed never produced a signed or taped confession.

Kenney Richey spent 20 years on death row. An appeals court ruled that his court-appointed attorney was inept and the arson "expert" was no expert.

Anthony Apanovitch was convicted of rape and murder in 1984 on circumstantial evidence. A hair found under the victim's bound hands didn't match his.

Arthur Tyler is on death row even though another man confessed in the murder of a 74-year-old produce vendor. After signing a confession, the man struck a deal and fingered Tyler.

Tyrone Noling sits on death row for the 1990 murders of an Atwater Township couple. Three buddies who testified against him have all recanted. No physical evidence linked Noling to the crime.

Joe D'Ambrosio and Thomas Keenan were convicted of a 1988 murder. The judge who ordered a new trial said that if the prosecutor had not withheld evidence, "no reasonable fact-finder would have found him guilty."

How many more examples does the governor need?
Illinois formed a special commission to review death-penalty cases. Ohio should do the same. The Illinois commission suggested 85 reforms, including:

Once a suspect is identified, police should still pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry, even if they point away from the suspect. Interrogations of homicide suspects should be videotaped.

Convictions for murder based upon the testimony of a single eyewitness or accomplice should not be death-penalty eligible.

All police, judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers working on capital cases must be educated about the risks of false testimony by jailhouse snitches and accomplice witnesses.

In 2004, the Ohio House approved a bill to create a commission to study all the cases on death row. The bill passed 85-8. It died in the Senate.

It's time to resurrect it before we kill anyone else.

Ohio death-penalty study? Various voices: Nos. 2 & 3

Different views on need for Ohio death penalty study:  Alan Johnson has this article in the Columbus Dispatch, entitled Ohio death penalty defended: Prosecutors fight study, say system works; critics see bad convictions."

Excerpt:
Ohio’s legal system hasn’t sent anyone to Death Row who doesn’t belong there, the head of the state prosecutors association says. He is urging Gov. Ted Strickland not to support a capital-punishment study.

"There are no mysteries here. … The death penalty is in fact being applied to exactly those persons and to those crimes for which it was intended," John E. Murphy wrote in a Jan. 15 letter to the Democratic governor.

Murphy said a study, long advocated by capital-punishment opponents and Attorney General Marc Dann during his campaign last year, would "send the wrong message to the citizens of this state that there is something wrong with our death penalty."

...Strickland, who last week granted temporary reprieves for three men scheduled to be executed within the next month, "has not yet indicated a preference" about a study, spokesman Keith Dailey said.

Murphy, who represents county prosecutors as executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, told Strickland that a study is unnecessary because the law has been thoroughly tested legally.

A study, while not a moratorium, would turn into one if the Ohio Supreme Court declined to set execution dates until the study was concluded, Murphy contended.

"A study commission would solve nothing. It would only be a vehicle for those opposed to the death penalty to cause further delay."

...Ohio Public Defender David Bodiker strongly disagreed with Murphy’s assurances about wrongly convicted inmates.

"There are a dozen cases right now where there is considerable evidence that the guy is innocent," he said.

"The problem is unringing the bell. If there’s a conviction, the system is not likely to want to reverse the situation."

Bodiker said Murphy and many county prosecutors take the attitude, "You haven’t caught us, so nothing’s wrong." ...

Cleveland Plain Dealer calls for Ohio death penalty study / Lauds Strickland for execution delays / Various voices #1

Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial calls for Ohio death penalty study:  The Cleveland Plain Dealer has this editorial, entitled "The quality of Ohio's justice: Are we comfortable with executions?"

In entirety:
The most solemn duty performed by a governor is the decision to grant or deny clemency. Immediately upon taking office, the last two men elected governor of Ohio have faced the sobering task of determining whether an inmate should live or die.

Gov. Bob Taft was confronted with the case of Wilford Berry, who had killed a Cleveland baker execution-style in 1989. After studying the case and considering the recommendation of the parole authority to execute, Taft denied clemency.

Gov. Ted Strickland now confronts the case of a killer named Kenneth Biros, who in 1991 raped, murdered and dismembered a woman he had met in a bar hours earlier. Biros' execution was scheduled for Tuesday, but Strickland has delayed it until at least March, because he wants more time to study this case and to determine his comfort level with the way Ohio administers the death penalty.

Both Taft and Strickland favor capital punishment. Both also acknowledge deep concerns about the possibility of wrongful convictions in capital cases. But Strickland seems committed to a long-overdue, systematic re-examination of the death sentence and the way it is applied in Ohio.

That is encouraging. Ohio's courts and legislature, as well as some of its governors, have struggled with the question of capital punishment's appropriateness:

Is it applied fairly without respect to considerations such as a convict's race, socioeconomic status or age? Do geographical or other external factors influence who is indicted with capital specifications and then convicted of capital crimes?

Strickland seems uncertain that the system is as trustworthy as it can be. With the delay in Biros' execution, he has sent a signal that he wants greater clarity. Given his lack of urgency about employing the executioner, now would be a good time for Strickland to order an executive study into the consistency and fairness of the way Ohio metes out and administers its death sentence. Too many questions have lingered for too long.