Jim Petro served as Ohio’s Attorney General and presided over 18 exe­cu­tions. However, he aban­doned his sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment after see­ing the risks of wrong­ful exe­cu­tions: ​“Our jus­tice sys­tem is based on the deci­sion-mak­ing of human beings, and human beings are fal­li­ble. We make mis­takes and our judg­ments are influ­enced by bias­es and imper­fect moti­va­tions. Implementing the death penal­ty makes our errors per­ma­nent and impos­si­ble to rem­e­dy.” Recently, he called on the Ohio leg­is­la­ture to adopt the reforms rec­om­mend­ed by a Task Force appoint­ed by the state Supreme Court, say­ing, ​“Without action the death penal­ty sys­tem will con­tin­ue to be an expen­sive, unfair­ly applied, and risk-filled process that has no place in today’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” He asked the leg­is­la­ture to require the record­ing of inter­ro­ga­tions, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of crime labs, and guide­lines for pros­e­cu­tors seek­ing the death penalty.

Petro con­clud­ed, ​“Ohio may not yet be ready to part ways with the death penal­ty, but we should all agree Ohio is ready to make changes that will help ensure that the ulti­mate sanc­tion is applied fair­ly and accurately.”

(J. Petro and N. Petro, ​“Jim Petro: Ohio should­n’t risk exe­cut­ing inno­cent,” Cincinnati Enquirer (op-ed), September 19, 2014). See New Voices and Innocence.

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