A Cincinnati Enquirer inves­ti­ga­tion of Ohio cap­i­tal cas­es found that more death sen­tences are over­turned in the state because of mis­takes by defense lawyers than for any oth­er rea­son. Reporters with the Enquirer found that 15 peo­ple on Ohio’s death row won fed­er­al appeals dur­ing the past sev­en years based entire­ly or in part on the poor per­for­mance of their lawyers. ​“It’s a big, big prob­lem. The lawyers don’t have the where­with­al to put on a first-class defense,” observed Judge Gilbert Merritt, a semi-retired senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati.

In his review of appeals filed with the 6th Circuit, reporter Dan Horn of the Enquirer found evi­dence that some cap­i­tal defense attor­neys nev­er spoke to their clients, and oth­ers hired unqual­i­fied experts or none at all. In oth­er instances, defense attor­neys neglect­ed to read key doc­u­ments or con­duct basic inves­ti­ga­tions or inter­views with their own wit­ness­es. One attor­ney failed to notice when pros­e­cu­tors admit­ted they could not prove who shot the vic­tim, and two oth­ers broke out in laugh­ter dur­ing argu­ments before the Ohio Supreme Court.

In all, 19 peo­ple on death row in three states — includ­ing 15 from Ohio, three from Tennessee, and one from Kentucky — received relief from the 6th Circuit based on ​“inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel” claims since 2000. Though most of these rever­sals con­cerned death sen­tences rather than con­vic­tions, new tri­als were ordered for four inmates: one per­son is await­ing a new tri­al, one plead­ed guilty to avoid a death sen­tence, one died in prison, and anoth­er’s con­vic­tion was rein­stat­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Federal appeals Judge Danny Boggs not­ed, ​“If coun­sel pro­vides inef­fec­tive assis­tance, then the pris­on­er is like­ly to be spared, cer­tain­ly for many years, and fre­quent­ly for­ev­er.“

Some experts say these prob­lems are a direct result of poor train­ing for cap­i­tal defense attor­neys, who are often under­paid or sim­ply over­matched by law enforce­men­t’s resources. The Enquirer report­ed that the prob­lem of inad­e­quate cap­i­tal defense rep­re­sen­ta­tion costs tax­pay­ers tens of thou­sands of dol­lars in legal bills, and forces vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers and fam­i­lies of the accused to endure years of legal chal­lenges.
(Cincinnati Enquirer, April 16, 2007). See Representation.
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