Exonerated death row inmates visit Cincinnati to push for death penalty abolition
“A group of people who almost lost their lives for crimes they didn’t commit came to Cincinnati Monday, campaigning to make sure no one else suffers their fate, or worse. It was a false accusation that cost Derrick Jamison his freedom and almost cost him his life.”
Cleveland man who spent decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit speaks out against the death penalty
“A Cleveland man who was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit is making good on his vow to end the death penalty in the United States. Kwame Ajamu, formerly known as Ronnie Bridgeman, spends a lot of his time speaking about his past.”
Op-Ed: Family member of death row exoneree speaks out (August 25, 2022)
“When a man named Dale Johnston began dating my mother-in-law in 1998, I admit that I was uneasy. In the town where we lived, his name had become synonymous with brutality, violence, and evil.”
Read the rest of this op-ed in the Ohio Capital Journal here.
Ohioans Mark 4 Years Since Last Execution with ‘Day of Hope’
Ohio’s last execution was four years ago today, and advocates for ending the death penalty are hopeful it remains the last.
At noon, people at rallies for a “Day of Hope” in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland will call for an end to capital punishment.
The Herald-Dispatch: Ohio should abolish the death penalty (June 29, 2022)
This year Ohio will not execute any prisoners on Death Row. That decision became official last week when Gov. Mike DeWine postponed the last execution that was scheduled for the year.
DeWine’s decision pushed the execution of Quisi Bryan, who was convicted of killing a Cleveland police officer, from this October into 2026. The decision was as much practical as philosophical. Ohio executes prisoners by lethal injection, but no drug maker is willing to supply drugs for that purpose.
According to the Associated Press, DeWine’s decision to postpone Bryan’s execution was one of several reprieves the governor has issued in recent years. DeWine has said he is concerned that drug companies — which oppose the use of their drugs in executions — could pull pharmaceuticals from state hospitals to punish Ohio if it did secure their drugs and use them for lethal injection.
Read the rest of this article from The Herald-Dispatch here.
Fifty years in, death penalty still unworkable, group says (June 29, 2022)
If there’s a way to make the death penalty nonarbitrary and nondiscriminatory, the United States hasn’t found it, a group that studies capital punishment said in a report released Tuesday.
Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Furman v Georgia. It effectively put the death penalty on hold after the court found that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment when applied in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner.
In 1977 — after the high court approved some new state death laws — executions resumed, with Gary Gilmore dying in front of a Utah firing squad.
The Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center has spent the past five years building a database containing every one of the 9,737 death penalty convictions between the time they restarted in the United States and Jan. 1, 2021. It came to a stark conclusion.
Read the rest of this article from The Capital Journal here.
‘Completely broken’: Exonerated death row inmate speaks out on flaws of capital punishment (May 21, 2022)
Kwame Ajamu was only 17 years old when he was arrested and sentenced to die for a crime he didn’t commit.
“It was a warm spring day on May 19, 1975. Ajamu, his brother and friend were wrapping up a basketball game. On their way home, the trio passed a crime scene where a money order salesman had been robbed and killed. His body was still on the ground, outlined in chalk. It was only a matter of days before Ajamu woke up in his bed, flustered and confused as armed Cleveland Police officers swarmed his home to arrest him.”
Read the rest of this article from Akron Beacon Journal here.
Ohioans make a pro-life argument to end capital punishment (April 25, 2022)
“An often-overlooked flaw of capital punishment is that it turns its supporters into de facto killers themselves, an opponent of the practice said during ‘Life Beyond the Death Penalty,’ hosted by Ohioans to Stop Executions.”
Read the rest of this article from Baptist Global News here.
Life Beyond Death: Looking to abolish the death penalty in Ohio (April 22, 2022)
“Anti-capital punishment advocates gathered to discuss ways of fighting for the termination of the death penalty Tuesday night at Ashland University.”
TV: Family members make case against death penalty (April 14, 2022)
“Family members of murder victims in Ohio are lobbying state lawmakers to end the death penalty.”
Watch the rest of this story from ABC 13 Action News in Toledo.