OTSE Response to ABA release on D/P

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OTSE ECHOES AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION' S RECOMMENDATION
OF DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM AND STUDY

September 24, 2007

Columbus, OH – Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE) today echoed an American Bar Association state assessment team recommendation that executions in the state be halted until lawmakers review capital punishment practices that fail to meet basic ABA standards for the death penalty.

The ABA assessment team, comprised of a diverse panel of legal and academic experts from a variety of perspectives regarding capital punishment, issued its report today.

"The ABA's state assessment team found that Ohio's death penalty has serious flaws and carries a high risk of wrongful convictions, " said Sister Alice Gerdeman, president of OTSE. "They also showed that in Ohio death sentencing is subject to significant racial and geographic bias.

Ohio is also failing to provide adequate representation for those facing the death penalty, failing to provide juries with a clear understanding of their role in capital punishment trials, and failing to serve the needs of victims' family members. Having followed many cases, these findings are alarming but not surprising.

It is imperative that the state conduct additional study.

Furthermore we believe that the state should follow the recommendation of the ABA and halt executions while this study is performed, as continuing to carry out executions at such high risk would be wholly unacceptable. "

OTSE noted that concerns about lethal injections and the fair and
accurate application of the death penalty have halted executions in more than a dozen states around the nation. The group noted that Ohio's problems are very similar to the issues currently being debated in these other states and that this report offers lawmakers a chance to take a closer look at the state's capital punishment law.

Gerdeman noted, "We are grateful that the members of the assessment team have provided us with such a thorough review of Ohio's death penalty, and we share their concerns. We hope that Governor Strickland and our state's lawmakers will join us in heeding the ABA's call for a moratorium and further study of the death penalty."

OTSE urges everyone concerned about the death penalty to join their members outside the Statehouse at noon on Wednesday to call for an immediate halt to executions and a comprehensive study of the systemic problems inherent in the death penalty.

For more information, visit www.otse.org or www.acluohio. org/dprally.

Alice Gerdeman, CDP, President of OTSE is available for comment on the report at 513-579-8547 or alice@ijpc-cincinna ti.org. For additional comment contact Carrie L. Davis, Staff Attorney ACLU Ohio at 216-472-2220, cdavis@acluohio. org or Jim Tobin, Catholic Conference of Ohio at 614 224 7147, jtobin@ohiocathconf .org.


OTSE is committed to a moratorium on executions in Ohio. Over 130 Ohio organizations have joined the call for a moratorium and thorough review of the state's death penalty system, including the city councils of Cincinnati, Dayton, Oberlin and Yellow Springs.

Nationwide, over 4,600 national and local groups, businesses, and faith communities have called for a halt to executions, including 152 local governments.

Contact: Alice Gerdeman, CDP 513-579-8547, alice@ijpc-cincinna ti.org

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Panel: Moratorium sought on Ohio death penalty cases

*By PAUL KOSTYU GateHoue Media **Columbus** Bureau*

COLUMBUS – Ohio's execution policy "is not a system that delivers justice," according to a former president of the American Bar Association., who said political leaders should impose a temporary moratorium on carrying out death sentences.

Michael S. Greco of Boston said Ohio met four of the association' s 93 standards of a just system for accusing, trying, convicting and sentencing in death penalty cases.

That conclusion was reached by a nine-member commission of Ohioans, a number of which oppose the death penalty, who spent 2 1/2 years studying death penalty cases. Similar commissions have operated in seven other states.

Greco said members of the commission were not selected based on their view of the death penalty, but instead on their interest in justice.

"We're not saying Ohio executions have been unjust," Greco said. "The issue is if Ohio is doing everything it can to ensure justice before an execution."

Phyllis Crocker, an associate dean and professor at the
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, said the results of the study showed significant racial and geographic bias in death penalty cases. The commission, which she chaired, did not study the executions already conducted by the state, nor did it examine whether lethal injection is a constitutional method of execution, Crocker said.

Alice Gerdeman, president of Ohioans to Stop Executions, applauded the 500-page report saying it shows Ohio's death penalty has "serious flaws and carries a high risk of wrongful convictions. "

"We've been waiting for this kind of news in Ohio," said James W. Tobin of the Catholic Conference of Ohio. "Somebody else says there is a problem. Hopefully, this will capture the imagination of elected officials."

After taking office in January, Strickland ordered temporary reprieves for three inmates scheduled to be executed so he could review their cases. Two of the three eventually were executed and the other has been granted a stay by the courts.