Op-Ed: The death penalty is arbitrary and should be repealed (August 25, 2021)
“In 2010 as a Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge, I was assigned a death penalty case. I couldn’t do it. I refused to hear the case because I believed Ohio’s death penalty laws did not meet the demands of our state and federal Constitutions.
At the time, I issued an explanation for my recusal, which I summarize here as a plea to Ohio’s legislative bodies that have before them House Bill 183 and Senate Bill 103, both of which propose to abolish the death penalty in Ohio.”
Read the rest of this op-ed by Justice A.J. Wagner in the Dayton Daily News.
Letter to the Editor: Bipartisan anti-death penalty bill (August 21, 2021)
“I was pleased to see the article with the headline, “Why area Republicans sponsored bills to abolish Ohio’s death penalty” in the July 19 edition. As someone who has followed the movement to abolish Ohio’s death penalty for a long time, this moment feels very different from past attempts at repeal, and that is largely due to the strong bipartisan support for both bills. “
Read this letter to the editor by Robert Stoughton in the Dayton Daily News here.
Why area Republicans sponsored bills to abolish Ohio’s death penalty (July 19, 2021)
“The Republican state lawmakers from southwest Ohio sponsoring bills in the Ohio House and Senate to end the death penalty both say they represent society’s changing views on capital punishment.
Both state Sen. Stephen Huffman, R-Tipp City; and state Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, say they previously supported the death penalty. Now they have concluded it’s imperfect, unfair, expensive and incompatible with pro-life views.”
Op-Ed: In Support of SB 103: Death Penalty Abolition (July 7, 2021)
“On behalf of the Office of Ohio Public Defender (OPD), I write in support of Senate Bill 103 and all efforts to abolish the death penalty in Ohio. The time has come to extinguish this inhumane practice.
The death penalty is the most inefficient government program in existence. If any other law was this expensive, this flawed and this ineffective at delivering results, there is no doubt the General Assembly would rescind that law. Ohio’s own Attorney General called the death penalty “time consuming, costly and lethargic.” He called it “broken.”1 The death penalty is not about justice; it is about vengeance. State sponsored vengeance. “
Letter to the Editor: Ohio must follow other states’ leads and abolish death penalty (July 1, 2021)
“The first death row inmate to be statutorily removed from death row due to severe mental illness at the time of his crime was resentenced to life imprisonment without parole last week. This first exemption is a welcome small step in our movement away from the death penalty, but it is time to abandon the death penalty altogether.”
Letter to the Editor: Death penalty offers only a false promise of closure and justice (June 17, 2021)
“I read Kyle Kirker’s op-ed “Schmidt wrong to put convicts above victims” and as someone who lost a loved one to murder, I can tell you that Mr. Kirker is extremely wrong in his assessment of HB 183 and the abolition of Ohio’s death penalty.”
TV: Bill to abolish death penalty gets 2nd hearing in Ohio Senate committee (June 16, 2021)
“Members of an Ohio Senate committee will hear from supporters of a new bill to abolish the death penalty.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding the second hearing for SB 103Wednesday, which has bipartisan support with seven Democrats and four Republicans among the sponsors and co-sponsors.”
TV: Death penalty ban supporters make pitch to Ohio state senators (June 16, 2021)
“Ohio hasn’t carried out an execution since Gov. Mike DeWine took office and there are none on the calendar this year. Still, the death penalty is legal in the state, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers hope there is enough support this year to make Ohio the 24th state to ban the punishment.”
Letter to the Editor: By ending the death penalty, we can divert resources where they’re really needed (June 11, 2021)
“It’s time to end the death penalty in Ohio, and particularly in Cuyahoga County. According to a recent study, Cuyahoga County had the nation’s 133rd highest homicide rate from 1972 to 2019. Yet as noted in the May 5 Plain Dealer, astonishingly, we ranked 12th in the nation in sentencing people to deathduring that same time period. How is this humanly possible?”
Read this letter to the editor by Richard Clark in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
Op-Ed: It is time for Ohio to repeal the death penalty (June 9, 2021)
“‘The criminal justice does not always get it right. I think that’s the starting point here.’ This quote was from Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor, a former county prosecutor, in an April article by Laura A. Bischoff. While the article addressed the need for greater post-conviction review, there can be no stronger statement supporting the death penalty repeal.”
Read this op-ed by David Sablosky published in the Hamilton Journal-News.