Post by thinkinkmesa on Feb 20, 2009 3:48:55 GMT -5
Cross post;
Executions get less notice since resuming in '99
Ohio's Death Row not as full; fewer turn out to protest, witness deaths.
In the 10 years since Wilford Berry, the Cleveland murderer known as "the Volunteer," died with his eyes open on the lethal-injection table, much has changed and yet much remains the same about capital punishment in Ohio.
Twenty-seven more men -- 15 of them white, 12 black -- followed Berry's path to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville to be lethally injected. Collectively, those men killed 41 people -- wives, mothers, fathers, children, friends and total strangers.
Berry, who died 10 years ago Thursday, was the first Ohioan to be put to death after a 36-year hiatus because of various legal challenges.
Since Berry's execution:
• Death Row has shrunk. It houses 175 men and one woman, about 25 fewer than a decade ago. One of them, Brett Hartman of Summit County, has an April 7 execution date; 20 are nearing the end of legal appeals, the final step before execution.
• The electric chair has been retired. "Old Sparky," as the chair was known, was an option for the first two executions but was permanently unplugged in 2001.
• Public protest and media coverage of executions have greatly diminished. Several hundred people protested at Berry's execution; that number is now routinely 25 or fewer. A total of 119 media outlets had credentials to cover the first execution, compared with a dozen or so now.
• Governors have removed three men from Death Row via executive clemency, and the courts have removed others.
• The number of death sentences imposed each year has dropped significantly. Juries are more likely to opt for life without parole except in the "worst of the worst" cases.
At the same time, however, Ohio's death penalty shows no sign of dying in the near future. Even the biggest death-penalty opponents hold out little hope that the ultimate punishment will be repealed, as some other states have done.
"It remains a broken system. It is an incredible expense to carry out, unscientific, inexact and just wrong," said Ohio Public Defender Tim Young. "My biggest concern is the continued disparities that seem to render the whole process unfair or give it a taint of unfairness."
Young said whether criminals get the death penalty often depends on their race, economic condition, the county where the crime was committed, whether they are mentally ill, and the specific lawyer and judges assigned in state and federal courts.
Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat, said the death penalty is "an appropriate punishment when it's imposed in a limited class of the most heinous cases."
He said his support for capital punishment goes back to his days as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court where the most extreme cases were heard, including that of mass murderer Ted Bundy.
Ohio prisons chief Terry Collins, who has attended every execution since Berry's, said changes have been made to ensure that the process is conducted "as compassionately and humanely as possible."
The time of executions was switched to 10 a.m. from 9 p.m. and cameras were installed to allow members of the media and other witnesses to observe the insertion of the intravenous tubes. After problems delayed two executions, prison team members were instructed that they are under no time pressure to complete their task.
"One thing we don't want is for it to become routine," Collins said, "but we expect to have some rigidity on how we have to do things."
www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/18/copy/WILFORD_10_YEARS.ART_ART_02-18-09_B3_JCCV1EN.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
Executions get less notice since resuming in '99
Ohio's Death Row not as full; fewer turn out to protest, witness deaths.
In the 10 years since Wilford Berry, the Cleveland murderer known as "the Volunteer," died with his eyes open on the lethal-injection table, much has changed and yet much remains the same about capital punishment in Ohio.
Twenty-seven more men -- 15 of them white, 12 black -- followed Berry's path to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville to be lethally injected. Collectively, those men killed 41 people -- wives, mothers, fathers, children, friends and total strangers.
Berry, who died 10 years ago Thursday, was the first Ohioan to be put to death after a 36-year hiatus because of various legal challenges.
Since Berry's execution:
• Death Row has shrunk. It houses 175 men and one woman, about 25 fewer than a decade ago. One of them, Brett Hartman of Summit County, has an April 7 execution date; 20 are nearing the end of legal appeals, the final step before execution.
• The electric chair has been retired. "Old Sparky," as the chair was known, was an option for the first two executions but was permanently unplugged in 2001.
• Public protest and media coverage of executions have greatly diminished. Several hundred people protested at Berry's execution; that number is now routinely 25 or fewer. A total of 119 media outlets had credentials to cover the first execution, compared with a dozen or so now.
• Governors have removed three men from Death Row via executive clemency, and the courts have removed others.
• The number of death sentences imposed each year has dropped significantly. Juries are more likely to opt for life without parole except in the "worst of the worst" cases.
At the same time, however, Ohio's death penalty shows no sign of dying in the near future. Even the biggest death-penalty opponents hold out little hope that the ultimate punishment will be repealed, as some other states have done.
"It remains a broken system. It is an incredible expense to carry out, unscientific, inexact and just wrong," said Ohio Public Defender Tim Young. "My biggest concern is the continued disparities that seem to render the whole process unfair or give it a taint of unfairness."
Young said whether criminals get the death penalty often depends on their race, economic condition, the county where the crime was committed, whether they are mentally ill, and the specific lawyer and judges assigned in state and federal courts.
Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat, said the death penalty is "an appropriate punishment when it's imposed in a limited class of the most heinous cases."
He said his support for capital punishment goes back to his days as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court where the most extreme cases were heard, including that of mass murderer Ted Bundy.
Ohio prisons chief Terry Collins, who has attended every execution since Berry's, said changes have been made to ensure that the process is conducted "as compassionately and humanely as possible."
The time of executions was switched to 10 a.m. from 9 p.m. and cameras were installed to allow members of the media and other witnesses to observe the insertion of the intravenous tubes. After problems delayed two executions, prison team members were instructed that they are under no time pressure to complete their task.
"One thing we don't want is for it to become routine," Collins said, "but we expect to have some rigidity on how we have to do things."
www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/18/copy/WILFORD_10_YEARS.ART_ART_02-18-09_B3_JCCV1EN.html?adsec=politics&sid=101