Lawmakers introduce another bill to end Ohio’s death penalty

(The Center Square) – It’s been nearly three years since Ohio put to death an inmate on death row, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers believes that should be the state’s final execution.

Reps. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, and Andy Miller, D-Columbus, joined other legislators to announce a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. For Schmidt, it’s a position reversal that spans 16 years.

“Over the course of my life, I have re-evaluated this issue,” Schmidt said. “When I last served in this Chamber 16 years ago, I was an advocate for continuing the death penalty. A decade and a half later, I truly feel, the time has come to end the death penalty in Ohio. I’m looking forward to discussing this important issue with my colleagues and constituents.”

This is the sixth time a bill to end state-sponsored executions has been introduced, and a total elimination again could face challenges in the House.

Speaker of the House Bob Cupp, R-Lima, a former court-of-appeals judge and Ohio Supreme Court justice, released a statement last week that said the death penalty is suitable in some situations.

“I believe there are instances where the death penalty is appropriate,” Cupp said in a statement. “In reading the horrific details of cases before the Supreme Court when I served as a Justice, there were some instances of such cruelty that it was hard to wrap one’s mind around it. The death penalty is appropriate when it comes to the worst of the worst. Narrowing the situations in which it is appropriate to apply is worthy of a thoughtful legislative discussion, however, as we did in the last general assembly by excluding its use when the perpetrator suffers from serious mental illness.”

Ohio’s last execution was in 2018. Gov. Mike DeWine, in declaring an “unofficial moratorium” on executions, said in December lethal injection is not an option in Ohio any longer.

DeWine told The Associated Press he now questions the death penalty’s value because of long delays between crime and punishment.

Former House Speaker Larry Householder, currently under indictment in a $60 million bribery and racketeering scheme, indicated a year ago costs and the failure for the state to find drugs for lethal injunction might be reason to reconsider the death penalty.

A federal judge ruled in 2019 the state’s current execution procedure could cause severe pain and suffering. After that ruling, DeWine ordered the prison system to search for alternatives.

According to a news release from Schmidt and Miller, Ohio has put to death 56 people since 1999, and 136 prisoners are on death row. Also, nine people sentenced to death have been exonerated for the crime.

The two also point toward studies that say the state could save millions of dollars if sentences were life without parole, rather than the death penalty.

“It is 2021. It is time to end the death penalty,” Miller said. “Apart from moral, ethical and spiritual reasons to oppose capital punishment, the carrying out of executions raises significant concerns on who is sentenced to death and how that sentence is carried out. It is long past time Ohio joins the global community in ending the death penalty.”

Disclaimer: This content is distributed by The Center Square