Will Gov. DeWine concede Ohio’s death penalty has failed in every way? | Michael Douglas

Gov. Mike DeWine recently remarked on the “age-old debate” about capital punishment. The governor then added that “at the appropriate time,” he would have “some more comments about it.”

What better time than now, as the effort to end the death penalty in Ohio gains a bit of momentum? Four state senators, two Democrats and two Republicans, have introduced legislation to abolish death sentences, in favor of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In unveiling their bill, the four lawmakers cited the persistent problems with the death penalty, such as the stark racial disparity, the failure to deter violent crime and a prolonged process that often brings its own heartache to the families of murder victims. They cited a majority of Ohioans support the change.

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Ohio already has a moratorium, practically speaking. The governor just announced three more reprieves, delaying executions set for this year until 2026. This has been his pattern, no executions taking place on his watch, or since 2018, and none expected for the remainder of his second term.

To a degree, the governor has little choice. Deep flaws have surfaced in the method of lethal injection, resulting in botched executions and courts raising doubts about the constitutionality of the approach. Drug manufacturers have balked — warning states that if they use their drugs in executions, they will lose access to medications for Medicaid and other programs.

DeWine notes lawmakers could opt for another method of execution. At the same time, he knows there’s scarce interest in the task.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost issued a report this month on the death penalty. He described the system as “broken,” and he challenged Ohioans and their elected leaders to “either overhaul the capital punishment system to make it effective, or end it.”

Yost mounted his high horse, cudgeling the Statehouse, describing its failure to act as “a testament to government impotence.” He sides with fixing the death penalty.

What would a fix look like? In 2011, Maureen O’Connor, then chief justice of Ohio Supreme Court, formed a representative and well-equipped task force to review the conduct of capital punishment. A few years earlier, the state had scored poorly when measured against American Bar Association standards.

In the end, the task force made 56 recommendations. Around a dozen have been enacted by lawmakers, including adjustments to filing deadlines and uniform fees for appointed defense counsel. Lawmakers barred the death penalty for those who suffer from severe mental illness, at the time of the crime or the execution.

Yet, a decade later, many of the most substantial recommendations have received paltry attention. These include creating a death penalty charging committee in the attorney general’s office to ease geographical disparities, some county prosecutors with broader conceptions of the worst of the worst. Other such changes would prohibit the death penalty when relying on a jailhouse informant or when a case lacks DNA or biological evidence.

Tellingly, those two latter recommendations would translate to no death penalty for Tyrone Noling, who sits on death row for two murders three decades ago that the record now shows he did not commit.

In his report, Yost says it is hard to calculate the precise cost of capital punishment. That’s probably true. What we do know is the death penalty is much more expensive given the layers of necessary procedures and protections.

The attorney general points to a Legislative Service Commission analysis that estimates the additional cost at $1 million to $3 million per case. Consider the 128 inmates on death row, the Yost report calculates, and the added cost totals from $128 million to $384 million. “A stunning amount,” the report concludes, for a “system that satisfies nobody.”

Yost wants a death penalty reserved for “the most abhorrent offenders.” He advocates removing the “churn, waste and endless lawsuits.” That sounds reasonable — until you weigh the mistakes already made.

Ohio has seen the exoneration of 11 inmates on death row. They spent a collective 216 years in prison. As death penalty opponents stress, that translates to one exoneration for every five executions.

Shave elements of the process, and an accelerated path heightens the risk of the state taking the life of an innocent person. Thus, ending the death penalty recognizes our shared shortcomings and the inevitability of error.

There’s no fixing death.

Two years ago, Bob Taft, Jim Petro and Lee Fisher, a former governor and two former attorneys general, explained why they changed their minds. Once architects of the state’s death penalty, they see today its “outright failure” and urge its repeal. “We know the only sure way to avoid executing the innocent is to stop executing,” they wrote in the Columbus Dispatch.

Might Mike DeWine join them?

Douglas was the Beacon Journal editorial page editor from 1999 to 2019. He can be reached at mddouglasmm@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio’s death penalty an ongoing, costly failure