News
QUINNIPIAC POLL: Ohioans Prefer Life With/Without Parole Over Death Penalty
Ohio’s death penalty has grown increasingly controversial. The then-state senator and now Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, who reintroduced the death penalty in Ohio, has become one of its chief critics. He says it’s been applied too broadly and too unevenly. A Supreme Court panel is reviewing its implementation. And the execution last month of […]
CNN Producing “DEATH ROW STORIES,” Mini-Series on the Difficult Search for Justice in the Death Penalty System
Each episode of DEATH ROW STORIES will unravel a different capital murder case that has twists and turns worthy of a crime thriller. All of these stories are true, and call into question the myriad of beliefs about the death penalty and the American justice system itself. Director Alex Gibney said, “The series provides stark […]
Toledo Blade Editorial Supports Reprieve and Calls for Greater Vigilance
In a prudent move, Gov. John Kasich has postponed the execution of condemned killer Gregory Lott to Nov. 19, eight months later than the previously scheduled date of March 19. After the egregious execution of 53-year-old Dennis McGuire in January, the Kasich administration should pause Ohio’s killing machine until it has time to select a […]
Citing Catholic Faith, Family of Victim Seeks to Keep Condemned Cleveland Killer From Lethal Injection
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Irene Allain and her family want to prevent condemned killer Gregory Lott’s execution. And they’re relying on their faith to do it. Allain is the daughter of John McGrath, the 82-year-old man Lott is convicted of killing a vicious attack in East Cleveland in July 1986. Nearly 28 years later, Lott is […]
Governor Kasich Delays Upcoming Execution of Gregory Lott
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Gov. John Kasich on Friday granted an eight-month reprieve to a condemned killer following last month’s execution of an inmate who repeatedly gasped in the state’s longest lethal-injection procedure…
Derrick Jamison: Exonerated from Ohio’s Death Row, Now on a Mission to Save Lives
CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati man imprisoned for two decades and released just one day before his scheduled execution has a new mission in life. Derrick Jamison was exonerated after it was discovered he did not commit the crime he was sentenced to death for…
Dennis McGuire Execution Another Sign of a Broken System
There is no question that the death penalty is a broken system. The problems with Ohio’s death penalty aren’t abstract problems in a report– they are embodied in the prison staff who carried out the suffocation execution of Dennis McGuire, the priest who witnessed it, the family who must endure another media storm. They are […]
Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial Board Calls for No More Executions
Ohio is gaining an unwanted reputation for experimenting with questionable ways to put people to death. In 2009 and 2011, the state was the first to try new lethal-injection methods on condemned prisoners. Last month, Ohio broke ground again by using, for the first time, a combination of hydromorphone, a painkiller, and midazolam, a sedative, […]