Ohio Commission to Release Recommendations for Death Penalty Reform

In 2011, the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court appoint­ed a blue-rib­bon Commission to review the state’s death penal­ty and to make rec­om­men­da­tions for reform. On April 10, the Commission pre­pared to announce 56 rec­om­men­da­tions for chang­ing the death penal­ty, includ­ing:

► Require high­er stan­dards for prov­ing guilt if a death sen­tence is sought (such as DNA evi­dence)
► Bar the death penal­ty for those who suf­fer from ​“seri­ous men­tal ill­ness”
► Lessen the num­ber of crimes eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty
► Create a Death Penalty Charging Committee at the Attorney General’s Office to approve cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions
► Adopt a Racial Justice Act to facil­i­tate inequal­i­ty claims in Ohio courts.

See all 56 pro­posed rec­om­men­da­tions from the Task Force.

(A. Welsh-Huggins, ​“Death penal­ty restric­tions rec­om­mend­ed in Ohio,” Associated Press, April 9, 2014). See Studies, Arbitrariness and Ohio.