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September 15, 2020 By Hannah Kubbins

Racial Bias in Ohio’s Death Penalty Is Part of National Pattern New Report Illustrates Death Penalty’s Roots in Slavery, Lynching, Segregation

 

Racial Bias in Ohio’s Death Penalty Is Part of National Pattern

New Report Illustrates Death Penalty’s Roots in Slavery, Lynching, Segregation

 

(Columbus, OH) — The death penalty in Ohio is part of a nationwide pattern of racial injustice in capital punishment. As demonstrated in Enduring Injustice, a new report on race and the death penalty from the Death Penalty Information Center, capital punishment in the U.S. is part of the legacy of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow segregation. Racial bias and racial disparities are endemic to the use of the death penalty, and Ohio is no exception.

 

Year after year, studies have found significant evidence of the influence of race on Ohio’s death penalty. This year, The Columbia Human Rights Law Review published a study of 599 aggravated murder charges in Hamilton County from January 1992 to August 2017. The researchers found, “that a case with at least one white victim faced odds of being charged capitally that were 4.54 times the odds of a similarly situated case with no white victims.”

 

Since its origins as a tool to control Black populations and deter slave revolts, to the use of lynching to maintain a white supremacist social order, to today’s widespread racial disparities in its application, the death penalty has been at the heart of a racist criminal legal system. “As it currently stands, courts are empowered to determine that a defendant’s life has so little redeeming value that the state is willing to execute that person, and this decision is influenced by stereotypes, fear, and comparative valuation of lives,” writes Ngozi Ndulue, lead author of Enduring Injustice. “One cannot create a criminal legal system that can be trusted to dispense justice without addressing this extreme example of racial injustice.”

 

Ohio’s use of the death penalty is part of an ongoing pattern of racial injustice that must be addressed. While people of color make up less than 15% of Ohio’s population, they make up 56% of Ohio’s death row, 33% of those executed, and 66% of those exonerated. However, when Ohio executions have taken place, 75% of the time it has involved a white victim – indicating which lives Ohio has deemed worthy of the ultimate punishment.

 

“The death penalty is one of the main pillars holding up a criminal legal system plagued by racism,” writes Hannah Kubbins, Executive Director of Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE).  Race continues to have a significant influence on who is sentenced to death in this country; both the race of the victim and the race of the accused,” she continues. 

 

“We should be looking for ways we can support impacted communities and all victims’ families independent of the criminal legal system that are not reliant on what happens to the person who caused the harm. It’s clear that the death penalty is a system that perpetuates racial disparity. For that reason, and dozens more, we hope to see the end of capital punishment in Ohio in the coming years,” writes Kubbins.

 

To speak with Hannah Kubbins, Executive Director at Ohioans to Stop Executions, call 740-877-7390 or email hkubbins@otse.org.

 

To speak with Ngozi Ndulue, author of Enduring Injustice and Senior Director of Research and Special Projects at the Death Penalty Information Center, please contact Chloe Madvig at 202-289-4022 or cmadvig@deathpenaltyinfo.org.

 

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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).

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