After 200 death row exonerations, will we finally put an end to the death penalty?
Last week brought new evidence of crippling flaws in America’s death penalty system. The number of people exonerated and freed from death row over the last 50 years reached 200.
Such flaws appear irreparable. They remind us of the damage that capital punishment does to some of our most important legal and political values. They offer powerful reasons as to why America should end the death penalty.
Death row exoneration shows U.S. capital punishment is ‘broken’
After the 200th death row exoneration in the United States since 1973 earlier this week, a Catholic organization that advocates against the death penalty is calling for an end to the “broken system of capital punishment” to ensure innocent people aren’t executed in the future.
“Because of the tireless efforts of faithful advocates and committed lawyers, 200 people have now been saved from the threat of execution after being sentenced to death,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, said in a July 3 statement.
Ohio Black Legislative Caucus advocates for the abolition of the death penalty
The Ohio Black Legislative Caucus members have been actively advocating to address and end capital punishment. They are shedding light on high-profile death penalty cases and the injustice that often leads to many incarcerated individuals not receiving a fair trial in the state.
OBLC is urging the House of Representatives and state Senate to pass bills that would repeal death penalty laws. These lawmakers want to prioritize improving rehabilitation over punishment and creating a system where every American receives a fair trial. The goal is not to overlook victims of horrific crimes but to allocate more resources to preventing innocent individuals from receiving the death penalty, especially those who did not commit a crime.
Move to abolish Ohio’s death penalty renewed
The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus gathered at the Capitol for a press conference in recognition of Juneteenth. Lawmakers addressed the theme “The Celebration of Liberation but How Free Are We?”
Senator Hearcel Craig recognized the day as “not only a day of liberation but also a day that compels us to reflect on our journey and renew our commitment to justice and equality…While progress has clearly been made, the vestiges of slavery persist with the disturbing and dangerous vitriol in racism and the assault of civil rights and voting rights.”
To conclude the press conference, OLBC President Terrence Upchurch reasserted the Caucus’ commitment to ending Ohio’s death penalty and forcefully called on his legislative colleagues to move bills that would repeal the death penalty laws.
Ohio Legislative Black Caucus pushes to end death penalty
The death penalty debate took center stage once again at the statehouse. Black lawmakers reasserted their commitment to ending the death penalty in Ohio.
The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus said it’s time to dismantle what they call a flawed system. They’re pushing for the State Senate and House of Representatives to pass bills that would repeal the state’s death penalty laws.
Paint it Forward: Toledo event combines art, activism
Ohioans to Stop Executions helped organize a unique event in Toledo, turning a forgotten garage into the newest site of a beautification project.
“Joy is the best type of protest,” the organizer of the event, Lydia Myrick, 22, a recent graduate from the University of Toledo, said of the 2024 Paint it Forward Festival and Reflections of Peace Exhibition.
Officially the gathering at the intersection of Pinewood Avenue and North Miller Street was activism “against the death penalty and gun violence,”
Time for Ohio to abolish the death penalty
Since the death penalty was enacted in Ohio in 1981, there have been 341 death sentences. Of those, 56 inmates have been executed, 119 remain on death row, and 11 inmates were exonerated. (The others either died of natural causes or had their sentences commuted to another penalty for various reasons.) According to the Ohio Innocence Project, more than 50% of Ohio’s death row is comprised of Black men even though Black people make up only 14% of our population. Ohio’s population is more than 80% white, but only 40% of death row inmates are white. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 75% of perpetrators were sentenced to death in cases where the victims were white, even though nationally only 50% of murder victims are white. The cost to Ohio taxpayers in death sentence cases is $1 to $3 million more per case as opposed to life in prison cases according to the Attorney General’s office due to the ongoing appeals and court costs involved.
Ohio considers 2 new death penalty bills that would either end executions or restart them
One of those bills would allow executions to resume, the other would abolish them. The first bill would change the method of execution from lethal injection to gas. Currently, the state has halted executions because they can’t secure the drugs used in lethal injections. If the bill passes, executions could then resume.
The other bill would replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Unfit for a Dog: A ‘Textbook’ Case of the Unacceptability of Nitrogen Suffocation Executions
Before Alabama put Kenneth Smith to death by nitrogen suffocation on January 25, state prosecutors assured the courts that he would be unconscious in seconds on his way to a peaceful passing. It was the same false promise execution proponents had previously made when states introduced the electric chair and lethal injection as new and improved humane methods of execution.
Instead, eyewitnesses — including family members of Elizabeth Sennett, whom Smith was convicted of killing — reported that Mr. Smith “convulsed,” “writhed,” and “shook” “violently” for more than two minutes after being administered the lethal gas and, struggling against the restraints that bound him to the gurney, “gasped” with his chest “heaving” for at least five more minutes before his breathing slowed and he lost consciousness about nine minutes into a 22-minute execution.
The racist roots of Ohio’s death penalty
The Death Penalty Information Center released a new report about Ohio’s death penalty. The report – Broken Promises: How a History of Racial Violence and Bias Shaped Ohio’s Death Penalty – traces the racist roots of our state’s capital punishment system.