Ohio AP Study

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH:

Comprehensive Ohio Study Concludes That Who Lives and Who Dies Depends On Race, Geography and Plea Bargains

In a major study of 1,936 indict­ments report­ed to the Ohio Supreme Court by Ohio coun­ties with cap­i­tal cas­es from October 1981 through 2002, the Associated Press found that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has been applied in an uneven and often arbitrary fashion.

• Defendants fac­ing a death penal­ty charge for killing a white per­son were twice as like­ly to be sen­tenced to death than defen­dants charged with killing a black per­son. This gross dis­par­i­ty in cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing sends a mes­sage that the tak­ing of a white life is more seri­ous than the tak­ing of a black life.

Rate Of Death Sentencing For Defendants Charged With Killing White Versus Black Victims

• Defendants most like­ly to get the death penal­ty were those who killed white vic­tims, regard­less of the race of the defendant:

• • Of 693 white vic­tim cas­es with white defen­dants:
    • 127 were giv­en the death penal­ty (18.3%)

• • Of 353 white vic­tim cas­es with black defen­dants
    • 62 were sen­tenced to death (17.6%).
      

BUT

• Defendants who killed black vic­tims were the least like­ly to get the death penal­ty, regard­less of the race of the defendant

• • Of 752 black vic­tim cas­es with black defen­dants
    • 63 were sen­tenced to death (8.4%)

• • Of 46 black vic­tim cas­es with white defendants 
    
  • • 4 were sen­tenced to death (8.7%).

Death Sentencing Rates Comparing Race of Victims and Defendants


Nearly half of the cas­es in which the state said it was seek­ing the death penal­ty end­ed with a plea bar­gain and a sen­tence less than death. Many of these were among the most seri­ous crimes, includ­ing 31 cas­es in which the crime involved two or more vic­tims, and 25 cas­es in which the crime involved at least three vic­tims.


Plea Bargaining in Capital Cases

Geography appeared to play a major role in who was sen­tenced to death. For exam­ple, in Cuyahoga County (includ­ing the city of Cleveland) 8.5% of cap­i­tal­ly charged defen­dants received a death sen­tence but in Hamilton County (includ­ing the city of Cincinnati), 43% received a death sen­tence.



Rate of Death Sentencing For Defendants Charged With Capital Crimes in Cuyahoga Versus Hamilton County

The Associated Press report­ed the find­ings of its detailed study in a three-part series, not­ing that:

1. Capital pun­ish­ment is applied unequal­ly in Ohio, with race-of-vic­tim, geog­ra­phy, and plea-bar­gains affect­ing death sen­tenc­ing;

2. Capital cas­es are expen­sive and are squeez­ing bud­gets in small­er coun­ties; and

3. Disparities exist in the res­o­lu­tion of death penal­ty cas­es in Ohio, when three-judge pan­els spare the life of only one of two defen­dants con­vict­ed of strik­ing­ly sim­i­lar crimes.

(Associated Press, May 5, 2005).

See the full series:
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, ​“Death Penalty Unequal,” Associated Press, May 7, 2005.
Kate Roberts, ​“Capital Cases Hard for Smaller Counties,” Associated Press, May 8, 2005
John Seewer, ​“Two Killers; One Spared,” Associated Press, May 9, 2005.

See Race and Studies.