Bill Introduced to Abolish Death Penalty in Ohio
Several members of an Ohio house committee will tour the Ohio State Penitentiary -- also known as the Youngstown Supermax Prison -- today, where dozens of inmates sitting on Ohio's death row are housed.
Meanwhile, several state lawmakers are looking at whether to abolish the death penalty here in Ohio.
There are about 125 inmates on death row at the penitentiary. In Columbus, a number of lawmakers have introduced House Bill 160, which would abolish the death penalty in Ohio and grant those on death row automatic hearings to be resentenced to life without parole. Anyone convicted in any future instances of criminal homicide would get nothing less than life without parole.
Members of the Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee -- two of whom introduced the bill -- were also touring areas of the prison that held inmates who have already been sentenced to life without parole.
Proponents of the bill said that life sentences without parole would cost the state much less than death sentences, which often involve several appeals through the state and federal court systems.
As an example, just last week in Georgie, inmate Troy Davis, was executed for the shooting death of a police officer in 1989. He made numerous appeals and there were even pleas by the Pope to intercede and issue Davis, instead, a life sentence.
People in Ohio see this House bill as the ice potentially beginning to break on abolishment of the death penalty.
http://www.wytv.com/content/news/loc...wNtMaPs3g.cspx
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