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Thread: Ohio Capital Punishment News

  1. #421
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Execution protocol established by state prison system on trial

    Two men on death row believe Ohio’s process for executing prisoners is invalid because of the way it was put into place.

    The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) develops a protocol for executions. The men argue the protocol is a set of rules that the DRC must submit through the state’s formal rulemaking procedure before implementing. The DRC didn’t follow the procedure, so the agency cannot execute them, the men conclude.

    James O’Neal received the death penalty for murdering his wife in 1993 in her Madisonville home. During a 2003 robbery in Lima, Cleveland Jackson shot into a crowd, killing a teenager and a 3-year-old. Jackson was sentenced to death. Both men’s executions are scheduled for 2023.

    O’Neal sued the state in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in January 2018, arguing that the DRC protocol is invalid because it was improperly adopted. The court allowed Jackson to intervene in the case later that year. In April 2019, the court granted summary judgment in the DRC’s favor.

    The men each filed appeals with the Tenth District Court of Appeals. In a combined ruling, the appeals court upheld the trial court, stating in part that the execution protocol isn’t a government agency rule.

    R.C. 111.15 defines a “rule” as “any rule, regulation, bylaw, or standard having a general and uniform operation adopted by an agency under the authority of the laws governing the agency; any appendix to a rule; and any internal management rule.” Rules developed by government agencies in the state must go through a formal rulemaking process.

    O’Neal and Jackson appealed the Tenth District’s judgment separately. The Ohio Supreme Court accepted both cases and combined them for oral argument.

    O’Neal and Jackson maintain that the execution protocol – specifically, DRC 01-COM-11 – is a rule because it sets DRC standards that have a general and uniform operation for carrying out executions.

    Under state law, government agencies must file all proposed rules with the Ohio secretary of state, the Legislative Service Commission and the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review and must meet certain standards before the rules can take effect. However, the DRC didn’t submit the execution protocol to any of these agencies. Because the DRC failed to follow the rulemaking process, the execution protocol is invalid, Jackson contends.

    O’Neal disputes the Tenth District’s conclusion that the protocol isn’t a rule because it “fills the gaps” left by the General Assembly when enacting the state law governing executions. O’Neal agrees that administrative agencies adopt rules to fill the gaps in statutes and describes this role as part of the agency’s responsibility and power. However, he argues, the filling of legislative gaps doesn’t exempt the DRC from the rulemaking requirements in R.C. 111.15.

    Jackson notes that California, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska and Oregon mandate that execution protocols go through their state administrative rulemaking procedures.

    Represented by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the DRC argues the men don’t have the right to sue because the agency isn’t mandated to use a written execution protocol. The men could be executed with or without a written protocol, the agency maintains. Because the men’s ”injuries” – their scheduled executions – can’t be corrected by a ruling in their favor, they don’t have standing and the Court cannot hear the cases, the DRC asserts.

    The agency also contends that the protocol isn’t a rule because it doesn’t have general and uniform application. Although R.C. 111.15 states that an “internal management rule” falls under the definition of “rule,” the law also notes that “any order respecting the duties of employees” is not a rule. The agency argues the protocol isn’t a rule, viewing it as an order that directs the responsibilities of employees – essentially a checklist for personnel carrying out executions.

    The DRC maintains that not all government agency processes that fill the gaps left by legislation are necessarily rules. It notes, for example, that the Secretary of State’s election manual details many mechanics of voting but isn’t submitted through the rules process.

    The Supreme Court will hear four cases on June 29. The Court will consider arguments in Jackson v. State and O’Neal v. State as well as two other appeals on June 30. Oral arguments begin each day at 9 a.m.

    The Court will hold its session by videoconference. The arguments will be streamed live online at sc.ohio.gov and broadcast live on the Ohio Channel, which also archives them.

    https://highlandcountypress.com/Cont...ial/2/73/69613
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  2. #422
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Lawsuit: Ohio wrongly denying parole to ex-death row inmates

    Associated Press

    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former death row inmates in Ohio are being denied the opportunity for parole despite legal precedent requiring they receive “meaningful consideration” for release, two organizations allege in a new lawsuit.

    At issue in the suit filed Wednesday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court are requests for parole by ex-death row prisoners sentenced before 1978, when the state’s then-death penalty law was declared unconstitutional.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Ohio Justice & Policy Center allege that since at least 2003, and no later than 2016, the Ohio Parole Board has had an unwritten policy of denying parole to anyone once sentenced to death even if they’re now eligible for parole.

    “Under well-settled principles of Ohio law, individuals who are eligible for parole must receive meaningful consideration for parole release,” said the suit filed on behalf of a 78-year-old female inmate and a 64-year-old male inmate convicted in separate homicides. Both have served 45 years. Overall, 52 other former death row inmates sentenced before 1978 face the same dilemma, said David Singleton, Ohio Justice & Policy Center executive director.

    The lawsuit named the parole board and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Neither the board nor the corrections agency comments on pending litigation, a spokesperson said.

    https://apnews.com/article/ohio-laws...d5762b62d08d87
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  3. #423
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    This makes me really angry. When i signed up for this forum i mentioned i was a long-time lefty who happens to believe that there are things people can do that cause them to forfeit the right to live. I'm still a lefty, but I frankly can't stand most of the left at this point, and at least some of the credit for that goes to the ACLU, which lies and lies and then lies more and then lies some more.

    I just wasted (yes, my choice) the last half hour looking up a list on wikipedia of those executed in Ohio. Admittedly a lot of those executed don't have wikipedia entries, but of those who do, only two of them even CLAIMED innocence, and one of those even his attorneys didn't believe him, because they argued he shouldn't be executed because he was schizophrenic, not because he was innocent. and the other one who claimed innocence couldn't explain the blood on his pants or the dead person's credit card on his person.

    This is blatant BS, which is mainly what the ACLU is known for these days.

  4. #424
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    O'NEAL v OHIO

    Today in O’Neal v. State, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Ohio’s existing execution protocol to carry out death sentences by lethal injection can be applied without the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction submitting it through the state’s formal rulemaking procedures.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #425
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    How mental illness law is changing Ohio death row

    A new Ohio law prohibiting the execution of people who had severe mental illness at the time of their crime is seeing its first implementations.

    Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in January signed the bill into law covering killers diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or delusional disorder.

    Judges this year removed inmates in Butler and Franklin counties from death row after their attorneys successfully argued they met the mental illness criteria under the law.

    And the law was invoked this month in a state Supreme Court decision upholding the death sentence of a man who killed four relatives in 2017, including an 8-year-old boy.

    https://www.wowktv.com/ohio-3/how-me...hio-death-row/

    More Info

    How Mental Illness Law Is Changing Ohio Death Row

    A new Ohio law prohibiting the execution of people who had severe mental illness at the time of their crime has begun seeing its first implementations.

    Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in January signed the bill into law covering killers diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or delusional disorder when they committed their offenses.

    Earlier this year, judges removed inmates in Butler and Franklin counties from death row after their attorneys successfully argued they met the mental illness criteria under the law.

    And earlier this month, the law was invoked in a state Supreme Court decision upholding the death sentence of a man who killed four relatives in 2017, including an 8-year-old boy.

    WHAT ARE THE LAW'S ORIGINS?

    Whether mentally ill people should be eligible for death sentences has long been debated. Ohio law already prohibited executions if an offender, “because of a mental disease or defect, lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of the offender’s conduct.”

    State law also allows for a “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea, though that is rarely invoked and difficult to prove.

    Then, in 2014, an Ohio Supreme Court task force on the death penalty released a report with 56 recommendations for changing capital punishment in Ohio. Recommendation No. 8 outlined a ban on executions if offenders had specific mental illnesses at the time they committed their crimes. By contrast, the “mental disease or defect" language could also apply to inmate mental illnesses developed or exacerbated after incarceration.

    The new standard was backed by former GOP state Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, a longtime proponent for taking mental illness into consideration in the criminal justice system.

    “The ‘evolving standards of decency’ which prohibit the execution of juveniles and those with intellectual disabilities should prohibit execution of those with serious mental illness,” Lundberg Stratton testified before the Legislature in May 2019.

    HOW HAS THE LAW BEEN USED TO DATE?

    In June, a Franklin County judge threw out the death sentence imposed on David Braden, sentenced to die for the 1999 Columbus killings of his girlfriend, 44-year-old Denise Roberts, and her father, 83-year-old Ralph Heimlich. Braden's lawyers successfully argued he had paranoid schizophrenia with delusions.

    The Death Penalty Information Center, a national clearinghouse on capital punishment that opposes the death penalty, says Braden was the first inmate nationally removed from death row by such a law. Ohio is the only active death penalty state with this law.

    Tennessee considered but did not pass such legislation in 2020. Connecticut had a similar law on its books before abolishing the death penalty in 2015. The Virginia Senate considered a similar measure before the state also abolished its death penalty this year.

    In a 2nd Ohio case last month, a Butler County judge vacated the death sentence for Donald Ketterer, sentenced to die for the 2003 killing of 85-year-old Lawrence Sanders, his former boss. The judge said the evidence showed that Ketterer had bipolar disorder the day of the killing.

    Then on Oct. 7, the state Supreme Court ruled 5-2 to uphold the death sentence for Arron Lawson for a 2017 quadruple slaying. Justice Sharon Kennedy, writing for the majority said his brutal killing of the 4 people, including an 8-year-old child, justified the death sentence and outweighed evidence presented on his behalf including a variety of mental health diagnoses. A 3-judge panel sentenced Lawson to death in 2019.

    At different times, Lawson, 27, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, depression, and PTSD, and did not receive adequate treatment for those conditions, records show. As a result, Justice Michael Donnelly “reluctantly concurred” with upholding Lawson's death sentence. But he noted that Lawson has the ability to appeal under the new mental illness law.

    A message was left with Lawson's attorney seeking comment.

    WILL OTHER DEATH ROW INMATES INVOKE THE NEW LAW?

    The legislation that took effect in April provides a 1-year window for current death row inmates to file to have their death sentences revoked because of the serious mental illness clause. Inmates who successfully appeal their sentences are removed from death row but still face life in prison without parole.

    Opponents of the law, including the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, argued that every death row inmate would file an appeal, further clogging up the courts.

    “It also creates more uncertainty for the families of victims of Ohio's most heinous crimes and allows the offender yet another opportunity to cause victims' families more pain,” Vic Vigluicci, Portage County Prosecutor, testified in October 2019.

    But Tim Young, the state public defender, said mass filings are unlikely. He noted in September 2019 testimony that only 9% of Ohio death row inmates pursued a claim when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people with mental disabilities was unconstitutional. and only 4% — eight people — were successful.

    Meanwhile, the future of executions in Ohio is uncertain. DeWine said last year that because of Ohio’s difficulty in finding drugs for executions, lethal injection is no longer an option, and lawmakers must choose a different method of capital punishment before any inmates can be put to death.

    Pending bipartisan House and Senate bills would eliminate the death penalty and replace it with life without the possibility of parole.

    The state’s last execution was July 18, 2018, when Ohio put to death Robert Van Hook for killing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985.

    (source: Associated Press)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  6. #426
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    Two bills Ohio Legislature could end death penalty in state

    By David Winter
    WKRC

    CINCINNATI - Ohio is getting as close as it’s come in years to abolishing the death penalty. Two bills making their way through the legislature represent a new lease on life for some and endless pain to others.

    Derrick Jamison, now in Florida, described to us his 20 years on Ohio’s death row for a 1985 murder in Cincinnati for which he was cleared in 2005 after nearly getting the needle six times.

    “It was awful, man. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there, you know? I was innocent. I’m watching all my friends being executed around me.”

    “What was it like when you got out?” we asked.

    “It was a beautiful thing, sir. It was like the day before Christmas, you know? If I could bottle up that feeling and sell it, I’d be a billionaire, you know?”

    State Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Clermont County) says capital punishment needs to end in Ohio. She was a longtime proponent of the death penalty but has now introduced one of two bills making their way through the legislature that would abolish capital punishment in Ohio. She now believes too many innocent people are getting put to death.

    “You had heard in the past there were innocent people getting executed,” we asked her. “What changed your mind?”

    “I met one,” she replied. “Joe D’Ambrosio.”

    D’Ambrosio was found to be innocent of the murder that put him on death row. It changed Schmidt, but she faces tough questions from those who still want the death penalty as an option.

    “What if it were your child who were murdered?” we posed to her.

    “If it were my child murdered,” she paused, “I would want them to be in prison for the rest of their life, never seeing the light of day.”

    But relatives of the four people in West Chester who were killed in 2019 say they feel differently. Nirbhai Singh wants his nephew, Gurpreet Singh, put to death if he’s convicted of the murders. We told him about the bills to abolish the death penalty.

    “No!” he said emphatically. “We are angry with that. We request the lawmakers, please do not pass the law.”

    It’s a plea that will weigh heavily on Ohio lawmakers as they weigh these latest attempts to abolish capital punishment.

    Last December, Gov. Mike DeWine called for a moratorium on capital punishment in Ohio until the legislature approves a more viable method for executions.

    There are currently 135 people on Ohio’s death row.

    https://local12.com/news/local/two-b...ate-cincinnati
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  7. #427
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Now I just realized that one of the justices on the state Supreme Court is Pat DeWine who is the son of Mike DeWine the current governor which is pretty gross.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #428
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    His son is more rock solid on the death penalty as a Justice than his father is as governor.

  9. #429
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    DeWhine won renomination so no matter what happens the DP isn't coming back at this point.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  10. #430
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    No executions until at least 2027 if ever again.

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