Ohioans demand 'No death penalty!'

Rallying at the Statehouse here on Sept. 26, people from all corners of Ohio chanted, “No death penalty!”

Their message was aimed at Ohio’s legislators and Gov. Ted Strickland. Ohio has been second to Texas in the number of executions performed from 2004 to 2006. The rally followed a morning of prayer vigils and teach-ins.

Large numbers of high school students attended the rally. They heard powerful messages from a man whose parents were murdered, a woman with a family member on death row, a former death row prisoner who was later exonerated, and leaders from many religions.

The keynote speaker was Sam Milsap, a former Texas prosecutor who had prosecuted Ruben Cantu. Decisive evidence of Cantu’s innocence came to light—but only after he had already been executed. Milsap became an activist against the death penalty.

The rally supported the findings of an American Bar Association (ABA) study, released on Sept. 24, criticizing the fairness and accuracy of Ohio’s death penalty system. The ABA called for a halt to executions due to serious flaws in Ohio’s system, such as racial imbalances. The report also found fault with how defense-related evidence including DNA has been preserved, the failure to make prosecutors give over documents that are helpful to the defense, and the lack of defense access to public records. In Ohio, defense attorneys have less access to public records than reporters.

The ABA also criticized the use of the death penalty on prisoners with mental illness. Of 93 criteria for fairness and accuracy, Ohio met only four.

Sister Alice Gerdeman, president of Ohioans to Stop Executions, declared, “Ohioans have lost confidence in Ohio’s death penalty and are here today calling on our state leaders to halt executions and examine these problems.”

On Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a Kentucky case on lethal injection, challenging its constitutionality based on Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Many hoped there might be a change in Ohio’s death machine when Gov. Strickland, a Democrat, was elected in 2006. Due to a class action lawsuit by prisoners challenging whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment and a stay of execution, there have been only two executions in Ohio in 2007. The second one was the botched execution of Christopher Newton in May, which took 113 minutes.

So far, Gov. Strickland is being noncommittal. He stated, “I’m not changing anything that I’ve done in the past at this point but I certainly will read the report, commissioned by the bar association, and follow the proceedings of the U.S. Supreme Court.” Activists have pledged to keep the heat on Gov. Strickland and their state legislators in the coming months as the tide turns against the death penalty.

The death penalty is just one aspect of the racist, anti-working class injustice system that keeps 2 million people behind bars, a huge number of them youth of color, and is now being challenged from Jena, La., to Ohio.