Ohio Justice, Death Row Exoneree Say Innocence Is Reason Enough to Abolish Capital Punishment

In two sep­a­rate op-eds, an Ohio Supreme Court Justice and a death row exoneree from Ohio expressed con­cerns about wrong­ful con­vic­tions that have led them to believe the death penal­ty should be abol­ished. In The Highland County Press, Justice Paul Pfeifer (pic­tured, r.) wrote about the ​“long and com­plex” case of Thomas Keenan, who was grant­ed a new tri­al because pros­e­cu­tors ille­gal­ly with­held evi­dence. Pfeifer points to the mis­con­duct in Keenan’s case as a rea­son why the death penal­ty should be abol­ished: ​“If he had been exe­cut­ed, there would have been no way for the state to cleanse itself from the awful real­i­ty of hav­ing exe­cut­ed a per­son who had not received his full mea­sure of legal pro­tec­tion. To ensure that nev­er hap­pens, the Ohio Legislature should – in my opin­ion – abol­ish the death penal­ty.” Writing for CNN, death row exoneree Ricky Jackson (pic­tured, l.) argued that the risk of wrong­ful con­vic­tions is too great to con­tin­ue using the death penal­ty. Jackson, who was sen­tenced to death and spent 39 years wrong­ful­ly incar­cer­at­ed before his 2014 exon­er­a­tion, said ​“The fact that we too often send inno­cent peo­ple to death row in this coun­try can no longer be debat­ed. I ought to know. I was one of them.” Citing cas­es such as Cameron Todd Willingham and Carlos DeLuna, Jackson cau­tioned that not all inno­cent peo­ple sent to death row are exon­er­at­ed. ​“Some of those like­ly inno­cents,” he said, ​“have been exe­cut­ed at the hands of the gov­ern­ment.” Jackson recent­ly appeared at a Democratic town hall debate at which he asked Presidential can­di­date Hillary Clinton how one could sup­port cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment know­ing about sto­ries like his. Clinton called Jackson’s case ​“a trav­es­ty,” but said she con­tin­ues to believe the fed­er­al death penal­ty should be avail­able for cas­es of mass killings or ter­ror­ism. Jackson respond­ed to Clinton’s stance, writ­ing, ​“In cas­es such as those, the soci­etal pres­sure to con­vict is at its high­est. And when an intense pres­sure to con­vict is present, that is when the risk of con­vict­ing an inno­cent is greatest.” 

(P. Pfeifer, ​“A long and com­plex his­to­ry,” The Highland County Press, March 6, 2016; R. Jackson, ​“Exonerated death row inmate: Clinton wrong on death penal­ty,” CNN, March 14, 2016.) See Innocence.