Death Penalty

06.18.19

SB 3 and HB 1, Comparing Ohio’s Two Leading Criminal Justice Reform Bills

By Celina Coming

Right now, Ohio spends over $1.8 billion every year to hold nearly 50,000 people in prison. Many of those prisoners struggle with addiction, and many are locked up for simple drug crimes.

Throwing people in prison has not solved our state’s drug problems – but it has hurt thousands of Ohio families.

06.13.19

House Bill 3 – Opponent Testimony

By Celina Coming

Below is our Chief Lobbyist Gary Daniels’ opponent testimony on House Bill 3. This was delivered to the House Criminal Justice Committee on June 13, 2019.

To Chairman Lang, Vice Chair Plummer, Ranking Member Leland, and members of the House Criminal Justice Committee, thank you for this opportunity to present opponent testimony on House Bill 3.

11.09.17

Death Penalty: A Poster Child

By Celina Coming

Alva E. Campbell Jr. is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. on November 15th at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, OH. It will be the third execution this year in Ohio, following a moratorium on the death penalty after a severely botched execution took place in 2014.

09.15.17

Death is Back in Ohio

By Katrice Williams

Wednesday, September the 13^th, marks the second execution to take its place in the State of Ohio following a three year rupture after Governor John Kasich launched a moratorium on executions, subsequent to the torturous effects of the lethal concoction of midazolam and hydromorphone used in the execution of Dennis McGuire on January 16^th, 2014.

01.04.17

Hopelessly Broken: End Capital Punishment

By Katrice Williams

As part of our “tough on crime” mentality, many elected officials and members of the public have supported the belief  that people convicted of serious violent crimes are deserving of death, yet few of us look beyond the crime to see how these sentences are handed down.

04.08.16

Ohio is Asking the Wrong Questions about the Death Penalty

By James Kosmatka

Earlier this month, members of the Ohio General Assembly gathered to receive information about capital punishment in Ohio. The Joint Legislative Study Committee on Victims’ Rights listened to a representative from the Office of the Attorney General while he discussed the problems Ohio is having obtaining the needed drugs to execute people.

02.12.16

Do White Lives Matter More in Ohio Executions?

By Maria Bruno

There are plenty of powerful arguments against the use of the death penalty.  The frequency of wrongful convictions, the massive financial burden on states, and the moral qualms against government-sanctioned murder are a few of the most common.  A study released earlier this year by Frank Baumgartner of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill illustrates another very good reason for abolishing the death penalty: racial, gender, and location bias.

11.20.15

Ohio Must Stop Executions of People with Severe Mental Illness

By Chris Geggie

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio supports a bipartisan bill which seeks to spare those with severe and persistent mental illness from facing execution in the state of Ohio. This bill came out of the Ohio Supreme Court Task Force, which recommends an end to this barbaric practice.

06.22.15

Paying the Price For Race: Death Penalty Priorities in Ohio

By Adrienne Gavula

Following the botched execution of Dennis McGuire in Ohio early last year and other similar bungled executions across the country, death penalty opponents have been calling for reform.

In a recent article, former Governor Bob Taft (R) argued that the escalating price tag of the death penalty should warrant reconsideration of its use in Ohio.

02.04.15

No Executions in 2015! Now’s the Time for Real Reform

By Mike Brickner

The end of 2014 was not a good moment in Ohio’s long and sordid history with the death penalty.

In the final weeks of session, the General Assembly passed House Bill 663 (HB 663), which shrouded executions in unnecessary and dangerous secrecy that could lead to yet another botched execution.

12.19.14

Sunset at the Statehouse

By Shakyra Diaz

As the end of the year approaches, what went on in the final days of the 130^th Ohio General Assembly?

When last I wrote about the Ohio legislature’s “lame duck” session, I provided updates on the so-called Heartbeat Bill and the lethal injection bill.

12.03.14

What Are Ohio Legislators Cooking Up Now?

By Shakyra Diaz

If you are a member of the ACLU of Ohio, you are no doubt used to hearing from us about our work. Perhaps it is no surprise an organization known for protecting the First Amendment often exercises its own right to free speech.

10.22.14

Death by Secrecy

By Mike Brickner

Ohio’s death penalty has had a long and sordid history. Just look at the past decade:

» Four botched executions.

» Ten people granted clemency by the governor.

» Fifty-six recommendations from an Ohio Supreme Court taskforce of experts to revamp our broken system.

09.11.14

Will the next execution be as botched as the last?

By Kimberly Millhoan

At this point, we do not know. But we do know that it’s a gamble the State of Ohio is willing to take, as officials recently released the revised execution schedule for the next two years.

In April, we urged Governor John Kasich to pause executions through the end of 2015 so that courts and experts could take the time needed to ensure that lethal injections do not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

08.15.14

Is Ohio’s Death Penalty in Its Last Throes?

By Mike Brickner

It shouldn’t be news to anyone who has read a paper or watched television that there are significant problems with lethal injection. This year, Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona have all had executions that left witnesses with little doubt that they were botched.

05.28.14

Time to Pause

By Mike Brickner

As long as the death penalty exists, we have a duty to make sure that it is carried out fairly. Death is the harshest punishment society can dole out, so we must ensure that the right person is convicted, that it is reserved for the worst offenses, and that the execution procedure is transparent and administered in a humane way.

05.08.14

Will Reforming the Death Penalty Become as Controversial as the Death Penalty Itself?

By Melissa Bilancini

This is the third in a series of posts focusing on issues we will be tackling at the 2014 ACLU of Ohio biennial conference, Resist. Reclaim. Restore Your Rights!

Recently the Ohio Supreme Court Death Penalty Task Force released recommendations for improving Ohio’s oft-criticized death penalty system.

01.16.14

New Execution Methods Can’t Disguise Same Old Death Penalty Problems

By Mike Brickner

Ohio made history today by becoming the first state to use the two-drug combination of midazolam and hydromorphone in the execution of Dennis McGuire. State officials decided to use this experimental combination of powerful sedatives and painkillers after supplies of approved execution drugs ran dry.

11.05.13

Standing on the Side of Justice

By Nick Worner

On Saturday, November 2, 2013, a coalition of faith groups, unions, professional associations, community groups, and rights organizations (including the ACLU of Ohio) held a rally at the Ohio Statehouse.

Visit our Facebook album for pictures from the rally.

At this rally, we called on Ohio lawmakers to halt the death penalty, end the war on drugs and the epidemic of mass incarceration, break the many reentry barriers for the formerly incarcerated, and put a stop to “stand your ground” proposals in Ohio.

10.24.13

Standing Against the Death Penalty

By Nick Worner

On Saturday, November 2, 2013 a coalition of faith groups, unions, professional associations, community groups, and rights organizations (including the ACLU of Ohio) will hold a rally at the Ohio Statehouse. At this rally, we will call on Ohio lawmakers to halt the death penalty, end the war on drugs and the epidemic of mass incarceration, break the many reentry barriers for the formerly incarcerated, and put a stop to “stand your ground” proposals in Ohio.

09.30.13

Getting to the root of suicide behind Ohio prison bars

By Mike Brickner

This ACLU of Ohio Op/Ed originally appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on 9/30/2013

On Sept. 11, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction revealed that prison inmate James Blackburn committed suicide while in prison. Blackburn’s death followed the more high-profile suicides of Ariel Castro and Billy Slagle weeks before and marked the eighth suicide in Ohio prisons in 2013.