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Lawmaker continues fight to ban capital punishment
TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: July 21, 2014
In continuing to rail against the state’s use of capital punishment, Sen. Edna Brown has said Senate Bill 293 is rooted in ensuring that an innocent person is not executed.
“I believe this is a goal that we can all support. Unfortunately, it is not a simple task to accomplish under the current capital punishment system,” she said.
Brown, D-Toledo, pointed to a recent study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that indicated one in 25 death row inmates is likely to be innocent.
SB 293 would abolish the death penalty in Ohio.
“The rate of false convictions in capital cases is what motivated me to introduce this legislation, but there are many other compelling reasons to abolish the death penalty in Ohio,” she said, noting that studies have “overwhelmingly” found that prosecuting capital cases is substantially more expensive than cases in which the death penalty is not sought.
She said a report released by the Kansas Judicial Council this February found that costs in capital cases were three to four times more expensive than in non-capital cases.
“A 2008 study conducted in Maryland found that a capital case cost taxpayers $1.9 million more than a non-capital case. If one assumes that Ohio experiences similar cost differences, and in light of the 138 people currently on death row in Ohio, it is safe to say that abolishing (the) death penalty will save Ohio taxpayers millions of dollars,” Brown said.
In the last General Assembly, Brown attempted to end capital punishment through Senate Bill 270.
That bill stalled after two hearings before the Senate Judiciary committee.
In addition to its cost, Brown said capital punishment is “deeply flawed in a systemic way” and noted that factors such as a defendant’s race and gender have had a hand in the death penalty being applied.
In an attempt to address issues such as racial bias and geographic disparities, the lawmaker said the Ohio Supreme Court Death Penalty Task Force has released a draft of recommendations for the continued use of capital punishment in our state.
“The final recommendations should be available sometime in the near future. Prosecutors have criticized these recommendations as making it impossible to bring death penalty cases in Ohio,” Brown said.
“I do agree with the prosecutors that pursuit of capital punishment cases in a fair and equitable manner is impossible. The continued use of capital punishment is enormously expensive and wasteful, shows no clear benefits, is arbitrarily applied and always carries the possibility of execution of an innocent person.”
SB 293 is before the Senate Criminal Justice committee.
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