SUPCO Panel Issues Death Penalty Recommendations

An Ohio Supreme Court committee studying the death penalty is recommending many of the added factors that lead to a capital punishment case, such as rape, robbery or burglary, be removed from the state's death penalty law. The committee recommends factors such as the slaying of a child or a police officer or one involving multiple victims be used to pursue a death sentence. The recommendation follows arguments that added elements such as kidnapping or arson rarely result in death sentences, and when they do, they often carry the greatest risk of racial disparity among defendants. The committee says several inmates would never have gone to death row in the past 30 years had such a rule been in place, including five of the last 10 Ohio inmates put to death.