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  • About Us
    • Mission & History
    • Board & Staff
    • Contact OTSE
  • Take Action
    • Join OTSE
    • Donate
    • Upcoming Events
    • Host an Event
    • Open Letter from Ohio’s Faith Leaders
    • Mental Illness Reforms
  • Resources
    • Issues
    • Task Force Recommendations
    • Educational Handouts & Articles
    • Clemency Campaigns
    • News
    • Press Releases
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News

December 28, 2019

Victim’s son questions the county leading US in death sentences

Another amazing piece from OTSE Board Member, Jonathan Mann. “Amid this move away from death, Cuyahoga County has the troubling distinction of leading the nation in new death sentences. We are an extreme outlier — fewer than 1% of counties have imposed death at all. This doesn’t shock me. My dad was murdered in Cuyahoga […]

December 19, 2019

Column: criminal justice system prioritizes procedure over results

Wonderfully written article by Jack D’Aurora. “We have tried to insulate ourselves from the brutality of executions while satisfying our appetite for killing offenders, and so we have endeavored to make executions more civilized. The method of killing has evolved from hanging to firing squads to the electric chair to the gas chamber and now […]

December 19, 2019

Householder says legislature may dump Ohio’s death penalty law

“We don’t know that there is an option right now,” Householder told reporters Thursday. “We may have a law in place that allows for a death penalty that we can’t carry out. And the question is: Are the costs that are associated with that and retrials and all these things, at the end of the […]

December 17, 2019

Death Penalty Info Center Year-End Report

Take a moment to read through Death Penalty Information Center’s year end report today! With abolition in New Hampshire and a moratorium in California, half of the U.S. has abolished the death penalty or halted executions. We’re hopeful Ohio will join these states in the years to come. Read more here.

December 13, 2019

Ohio ‘not very close’ to resuming death penalty

COLUMBUS – Ohio’s next execution is set for February, but Gov. Mike DeWine said the state is “not very close” to resuming the death penalty. Read more here.  

December 4, 2019

Opinion: I oversaw executions. We cannot resume the federal death penalty.

“I have seen the death penalty up close. During my years as Ohio’s Republican attorney general, I oversaw 18 executions. Before that, I helped write the state’s death penalty law as a legislator. I’ve heard all the justifications — deterrence, support for victims, cost savings. And I know now they are all wrong, and those […]

November 25, 2019

Americans now support life in prison over death penalty

“For the first time in Gallup’s 34-year trend, a majority of Americans say that life imprisonment with no possibility of parole is a better punishment for murder than the death penalty is. The 60% to 36% advantage for life imprisonment marks a shift from the past two decades, when Americans were mostly divided in their […]

November 21, 2019

Judge blocks scheduled executions of federal death row inmates

“U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits the government from carrying out the first federal executions in 16 years. The injunction was entered in a lawsuit challenging the legality and constitutionality of the government’s lethal injection protocol. The following is a statement from Shawn Nolan, one of the attorneys […]

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RECOMMENDATION 52

Adoption of a rule directing that the trial judge is the appropriate authority for the appointment of experts for indigent defendants. The rule should further provide that the decision pertaining to the appointment of experts shall be made, on the record, at one of the prescribed Pre-Trial Conferences.

If defense counsel requests, the demand for appointment of the expert shall be made in-camera ex parte, and the order concerning the appointment shall be under seal.

Upon establishing counsels’ respective compliance with discovery obligations, the question of the appointment of experts (including determination of projected expert fees based upon analysis of expert’s time to be applied to the case as well as consideration of incremental payment of expert fees as case progresses) would be decided by the court, which decision would be subject to immediate appeal, under seal, to the appropriate Court of Appeals. The trial court judge shall make written findings as to the basis for any denial. Although concerns have been raised as to the ability of the Appellate Court to provide the anticipated, necessary expedited hearing within a reasonable time-frame, the Joint Task Force suggests that this issue be elevated to the status of a final appealable order and that the necessary expedited appellate process be spelled out in the statute.

RECOMMENDATION 54

Should the present process of appointment of indigent counsel by the judiciary continue, the main objective should always be to assure the best educationally experienced and qualified candidate, who is available (within the county or outside the county), and who is otherwise willing to take on the responsibilities associated with the case for an appropriate fee and accompanying expenses, is appointed. A uniform fee schedule for such services across the State of Ohio must be a necessary consideration to assure the equal protection and due process for the accused in a capital case.

RECOMMENDATION 55

Adoption of reporting standards to provide complete transparency of record, including requirements to ensure better record keeping by the trial judge and the provision of additional, detailed resource information necessary to assure strict compliance with due process, which information shall be submitted to the Supreme Court upon completion of the case. Such resource information may include unique Constitutional issues, unique evidentiary issues, significant motions, plea rationale, pre-sentence investigation, and any additional information required by the Rule 20 Committee or the Supreme Court of Ohio. Additional types of resource information could be developed as part of the mandated educational process conducted by the Ohio Judicial College.

RECOMMENDATION 56

The Joint Task Force believes that some of the recommendations above could be accomplished by the adoption of a separate Criminal Rule for Capital Cases. The Joint Task Force recommends that such a rule be adopted and provide for the mandatory training of attorneys and judges (Recommendation 49), the selection and appointment of indigent counsel in capital cases (Recommendation 51), and the enforcement of the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases and the Supplementary Guidelines for the Mitigation Function of Defense Teams (Recommendations 11 and 12).