News
Ohio board rejects condemned man’s request for mercy
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Parole Board on Friday rejected a clemency request by a condemned man who says he’s innocent of the fatal shooting of a volunteer addiction counselor and is asking that his life be spared. Warren Keith Henness, who goes by his middle name, was convicted of killing 51-year-old Richard Meyers in […]
Opinion: It’s ineffective, costs too much time and money, Jack D’Aurora
What message will Ohio send if it seeks the death penalty for the four members of the Wagner family accused of murdering eight members of the Rhoden family in Pike County in 2016? That the death penalty is the only way justice can be served for such brutal killings? That executing the Wagners is a […]
Ohio’s former governors Celeste, Taft, Strickland found executions the most difficult part of job.
Ohio’s three living former governors have no trouble agreeing on the toughest burden they faced in office: deciding whether someone should live or die. And after a collective 20 years as Ohio’s governor, Richard F. Celeste, Bob Taft and Ted Strickland all wish they had spared more people from execution. Read more here.
Kevin Werner: Ohio’s Broken Death Penalty
On Thursday, the Washington Supreme Court struck down that state’s death penalty due to racial bias and arbitrary application. Washington became the 20th state to abandon the death penalty. Ohio lawmakers would be wise to follow suit. Read the full article here.
Washington State Abolishes Death Penalty
Washington has become the 20th US state to ban the death penalty, after its Supreme Court ruled the punishment was applied in an “arbitrary and racially biased manner.” Read the full story here.
Kasich Grants Reprieve to Cleveland Jackson and Commutes Sentence of Raymond Tibbetts
COLUMBUS – Today Gov. John R. Kasich granted a reprieve to delay the execution of Cleveland Jackson and commuted the death sentence of Raymond Tibbetts to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jackson had been scheduled to be executed on September 13, 2018 and Tibbetts on October 17, 2018. Cleveland Jackson was convicted […]
Joshua Dressler: Ray Tibbetts’ case is exactly what executive clemency is for
In my more than four decades as a law professor, I have studied issues of fairness in our criminal justice system, particularly in the area of the death penalty. Thus I was struck by a question that a juror who served Ray Tibbetts’ capital trial, Ross Allen Geiger, posed in a letter to Gov. John […]