A com­mit­tee empan­eled by the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court made three pre­lim­i­nary rec­om­men­da­tions at its June meet­ing for reform­ing the state’s death penal­ty. The pan­el, which con­sists of pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, judges, and aca­d­e­m­ic experts, vot­ed to rec­om­mend a reduc­tion in the scope of crimes eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty, the cre­ation of a statewide pan­el to decide on seek­ing a death sen­tence, and the enact­ment of a Racial Justice Act. The restric­tion of cap­i­tal crimes would lim­it the death penal­ty to only those cas­es that involved the mur­der of mul­ti­ple vic­tims, a child under 13, or a police offi­cer, or a mur­der com­mit­ted to escape deten­tion or elim­i­nate a wit­ness. The statewide review pan­el would con­sist of for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, who would exam­ine poten­tial cap­i­tal cas­es to deter­mine whether local pros­e­cu­tors could bring cap­i­tal charges. A Racial Justice Act would allow death row inmates to use sta­tis­ti­cal stud­ies to sup­port claims of racial bias in state courts. While the pro­pos­als received a major­i­ty vote from the com­mit­tee, not all mem­bers sup­port­ed them and some oppo­nents were absent from the meet­ing. A final report is due by the end of the year.

(A. Welsh-Huggins, ​“Analysis: Divisions mark Ohio death penal­ty pan­el,” Associated Press via the Modesto Bee, July 15, 2013). See Studies and Race.

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