6-07-05, 9:26 am

A recent study of almost 2,000 death penalty cases in Ohio between 1981 and 2002 shows that race and geography played strong roles in determining the imposition of capital punishment.

According to the survey published by Associate Press early last May, a person convicted of killing a white person was more than twice as likely to receive the death penalty as a person who was convicted of killing a Black person.

In fact, defendants who had killed a white person were the most likely of any defendants to receive the death penalty, whereas defendants who had killed a Black person were the least likely of any capital punishment case defendant to be sentenced to death.

Observers argue that this result indicates that the Ohio criminal justice system places a much higher value on the lives of white people than it does Blacks.

Further, defendants tried in Hamilton County (which includes Cincinnati) were 5 times more likely to receive the death penalty than defendants in Cuyahoga County (which includes Cleveland).

In addition to racial and geographical biases, the Associated Press report documented the use of plea bargains to change the likely sentence from capital punishment to a prison term. AP concluded that Ohio’s system as 'uneven' and arbitrary.'

This startling evidence has provoked a call for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Ohio by many organizations and individuals. Ohioans to Stop Executions is one of those organizations and it has joined more than 100 small businesses, faith communities, local governments, and other Ohio organizations in support of a moratorium.

They are urging Republican Governor Robert Taft to implement the moratorium immediately.

Alice Gerdeman, President of Ohioans to Stop Executions, described Ohio’s use of the death penalty as 'simply an inaccurate lottery of geography and skin color.'
'Ohioans are outraged that a system with people’s lives on the line keeps getting it wrong. They are demanding that our state suspend executions immediately while these issues are addressed,' Gerdeman continued.

'An independent, thorough and balanced review is a necessary first step in starting to address the problems in Ohio’s death penalty,' said Gerdeman. 'Ohioans will simply not stand for executions moving forward when the system is so clearly getting it wrong time and time again.'

ACLU Legal Director Jeffrey Gamso agreed with this sentiment saying, 'The death penalty in Ohio is imposed and carried out in freakish, arbitrary, and discriminatory fashion.'

Not calling for a permanent ban on the use of the death penalty, Gamso said that a moratorium is needed to examine closely 'what we do and why we do it to make sure that our decisions about whether and who to kill are as fair and accurate as humanly possible.'

A bill calling for a review of the use of the death penalty was introduced in the state legislature last week. Similar legislation passed by a wide margin last year.

Ohio isn’t unique. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Ohio death penalty percentages reflect similar racial biases nationally. Comprising only 12% of the total US population, African Americans number 42% of death row inmates and 43% of total executions since 1976.

In North Carolina, a defendant who killed a white person is 3.5 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a defendant is with a Black victim.

In Philadelphia, Black defendants in capital cases are 38 percent more likely to be sentenced to death than are white defendants in capital cases.

Still further, the four leading jurisdiction with a disproportionate number of Black prisoners waiting execution are the US military (86% of its death row population is Black), Colorado (100%), Louisiana (72%), and Pennsylvania (70%).



--Joel Wendland can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.