Capital punishment in Ohio

Capital punishment in Ohio is legal. Since 1885, a total of 393 individuals have been executed in the U.S. state of Ohio. A total of 139 people (one woman and 138 men) are currently under a sentence of death in the state as of January 16, 2014. The current method of execution in Ohio is lethal injection.

Process

The jury decides the sentence in capital cases. Jurors can vote for the death penalty, life without parole, or life with a 30 years or 25 years non-parole period. Clemency rests with the governor of Ohio, who receives a non-binding report from the Ohio Parole Board.

As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime or mentally handicapped are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

In 2007 an American Bar Association report found that the Ohio death penalty procedures were sufficient to ensure a fair and accurate result in only four out out of 93 protocols. In view of these deficiencies the Ohio Supreme Court Joint Task Force was set up in 2011 and in 2015 it made 56 recommendations for changes to the Ohio death penalty system.

Locations and method

Executions in Ohio are currently performed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Since January 2012, death row for the majority of male inmates is located at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution (CCI) in Chillicothe. A few high security male death row inmates are held at the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) in Youngstown. Condemned female inmates are housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville and death row inmates with serious medical conditions are held at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus. Prior to this, most male death row inmates were held at OSP with a few being held at the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Mansfield. The move to CCI allows the units at OSP and Mansfield to be used to separate violent inmates from the general population and will provide increased security and reduce transportation costs to both the execution chamber at SOCF and to the Franklin Medical Center for inmate medical treatment.

Prior to 1885, executions were carried out by hanging in the county where the crime was committed. The Northwest Territory's first criminal statutes, also known as Marietta Code, date from 1788, 15 years before Ohio's statehood in 1803. These statutes did not ensure yet any uniform means of execution, nor did they designate where the executions were to take place. The statutory change from 1815 had executions as to be carried out locally and required the local sheriff to be also the local executioner, and in his absence or in any case of him being impeded, the local coroner would have to substitute him. That ordeal appears to be the first statewide attempt to ensure uniform means of execution and to designate where such executions were to take place, but it also appears to just turn into protocol and procedure by law a practice which had institutionalized even before Ohio's statehood in 1803.

In 1885, the legislature enacted a law that required executions to be carried out at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus by hanging, and law handed the executioner's job to the penitentiary's warden. This practice of naming the State Prison's warden executioner seems to have penetrated deeply into the 20th Century, as we can learn from the 1938 death sentence against Anna Marie Hahn. In 1897 the gallows were replaced by the electric chair, which was considered to be a more technologically advanced and humane method of execution. Ohio also became the second state to use the electric chair. 28 hangings, and 315 electrocutions were carried out at the now defunct Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus from 1885 to 1963.

The Los Angeles Times noted in October 2009 that Ohio had three botched executions by lethal injection since 2006 - Joseph Lewis Clark, Christopher Newton and Romell Broom.

In November 2009, Ohio announced that it would only use a single drug for lethal injections, consisting of a single dose of Sodium thiopental, the first state to do so. The first single drug execution was that of Kenneth Biros, 51, on Tuesday, December 8, 2009. Biros was convicted of murdering 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Masury, Ohio in 1991. Biros' counsel indicated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that Biros' execution, given that it is the first of its kind, may amount to "human experimentation." Various appeals for clemency were ultimately denied. Ohio announced in January 2011 that it will change the drug used from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital, as the availability of sodium thiopental has become quite scarce. The first execution using pentobarbital, was that of Johnnie Baston, on March 10, 2011.

On July 1, 2011, Lundbeck, the Danish pharmaceutical company that holds the sole license to manufacture pentobarbital in the United States, announced that its distributors would deny distribution of pentobarbital to U.S. prisons that carry out the death penalty by lethal injection. Ohio used up its supply of pentobarbital on September 25, 2013, with the execution of Harry Mitts Jr. On January 16, 2014, Ohio executed Dennis McGuire who was convicted of raping and then murdering 22 year old Joy Stewart who was 30 week pregnant, became the first U.S. inmate to be executed with a combination of the drugs midazolam and hydromorphone. The effects of this combination of drugs on the body are controversial and not well understood. McGuire took 25 minutes to die, an unusually long time for an execution, being among the longest since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.

Postponements

In January 2015, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced that all executions scheduled for the remainder of that year would be postponed due to the lack of availability of required drugs. In October 2015, the department further announced that Governor John Kasich had granted additional reprieves to all inmates due to be executed in 2016 for the same reason. Ohio currently (as of March 2016) has no executions scheduled until January 2017.

Capital offenses

Currently (as of 2015), a charge of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications may occur with at least one of the following special circumstances:

• The offense was the assassination of the president of the United States or person in line of succession to the presidency, or of the governor or lieutenant governor of Ohio, or of the president-elect or vice president-elect of the United States, or of the governor-elect of Ohio, or of a candidate for any of the foregoing offices.
• The offense was committed for hire.
• The offense was committed for the purpose of escaping detection, apprehension, trial, or punishment for another offense committed by the offender.
• The offense was committed while the offender was under detention or while the offender was at large after having broken detention. "Detention" generally refers to a detention due to arrest, conviction, delinquency, or other violation of law, and does not include hospitalization or institutionalization where the person was not confined as the result of violating the law.
• Prior to the current offense, the offender was convicted of a previous offense having as an essential element the purposeful killing of or attempt to kill another, or the current offense was part of a course of conduct involving the offender's purposeful killing of or attempt to kill two or more persons.
• The victim was a law enforcement officer (LEO), and the offender knew or reasonably should have known that fact, and the LEO was either performing duties as a LEO or the offender acted with the specific purpose of killing a LEO.
• The offense was committed while the offender was committing, attempting to commit, or fleeing immediately after committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, rape, aggravated arson, aggravated robbery, or aggravated burglary, and either the offender was the principal offender in the commission of the aggravated murder or, if not the principal offender, committed the aggravated murder with prior planning.
• The victim was a witness who was purposely killed by the offender either to prevent the victim from testifying, or in retaliation for prior testimony.
• The offender, in the commission of the offense, purposefully caused the death of another who was under thirteen years of age at the time of the commission of the offense, and either the offender was the principal offender in the commission of the offense or, if not the principal offender, committed the offense with prior planning.
• The offense was committed while the offender was committing, attempting to commit, or fleeing immediately after committing or attempting to commit terrorism.

Various mitigating factors may be considered and weighed against the above aggravating factors in deciding whether to impose the death penalty, including but not limited to the nature and circumstances of the offense; the history, character, and background of the offender, including but not limited to lack of a prior record; whether the offender was coerced or under duress; whether the offender had a mental disease or defect that prevented them from appreciating the criminality of their conduct at the time of the offense; and the youth of the offender.

List of individuals executed since 1976

All of the following individuals have been executed for murder since the Furman decision. All 53 were executed by lethal injection. Notable persons executed in Ohio before the Furman decision include Anna Marie Hahn.

	Name	Date of Execution	Victim	Governor	The murder
1	Wilford Berry, Jr.	February 19, 1999	Charles Mitroff	Bob Taft	Wilford Berry murdered his new boss Mitroff just as he came back from his delivery run in his bakery. He was shot three times and dumped in a shallow grave.
2	Jay D. Scott	June 14, 2001	Vinnie M. Price		Jay D. Scott shot price to death while she was serving him in the delicatessen she owned. Scott intended to rob the shop and did not want any witnesses identifying him. He also murdered a security guard but was only sentenced to death for Price's murder.
3	John William Byrd, Jr.	February 19, 2002	Monte Tewksbury		John Byrd murdered Monte while tobbing his shop. Byrd stabbed Monte to death while he was working along and stole £133 from the shop.
4	Alton Coleman	April 26, 2002	Tonnie Storey Marlene Walters (sentenced to death in Indiana and Illinois)		Alton Coleman strangled tonnie to death while he was raping her. She was on her route to computer class when she was murdered. This murder sparked a killing spree that resulted in the loss of 8 lives and three death sentences
5	Robert Anthony Buell	September 24, 2002	Krista Harrison		Robert Buell abducted Krista while she was collecting cans with a boy. He then took her back to his home where he raped her and strangled her to death.
6	Richard Edwin Fox	February 12, 2003	Leslie Renae Keckler		Richard Fox lured Leslie into his car under the pretext that she was showing her his sales. After she rejected his sexual advances he stabbed her 6 times and then drove to a secluded areas and strangled her.
7	David M. Brewer	April 29, 2003	Sherry Byrne		David Brewer lured Sherry Bryne the wife of his fraternity brother into a motel under the pretense of selling radio parts. He then raped her and dragged her to the trunk of his car where he stabbed Sherry 15 times.
8	Ernest Martin	June 18, 2003	Robert Robinson		Ernest Martin was planning to rob Robert Robinson. The plan was that his girlfriend would ask for medicine and he would let her in. The plan did not work and Robert closed the door before Ernest could gain entrance angered by this he shot two shots into the door and one of them killed Robert.
9	Lewis Williams, Jr.	January 14, 2004	Leoma Chmielewski		Lewis Williams broke into the home of leoma Chmielewski and ransacked it. He beat her and stomped on her chest during the robbery and then killed her by shooting her close range.
10	John Glenn Roe	February 3, 2004	Donette Crawford		John Roe kidnapped Donette at gunpoint and ordered her to give him his money and her car. Nervous that she might testify he shoot her to death.
11	William Dean Wickline	March 30, 2004	Peggy Lerch Christopher Lerch		William Wickline was drinking when he got into an argument with Christopher Lerch over £6000 owed to William. William strangled Chris and his wife Peggy and cut up their bodies. The couples' bodies were never found.
12	William G. Zuern, Jr.	June 8, 2004	Hamilton County Deputy Sheriff Phillip Pence		William Zuern was awaiting trial for another murder when he got mad about how restrictive his prison was. He carved a knife out of a piece of metal and he stabbed officer Philip Pence with it.
13	Stephen Allan Vrabel	July 14, 2004	Susan Clemente Lisa Clemente		Stephen Vrabel brought a new gun and murdered his live in girlfriend and then because he thought she was better off dead than with a dead mom and a dad in prison he shot Lisa Clemente his 3-year-old daughter.
14	Scott Andrew Mink	July 20, 2004	William Mink Sheila Mink		Scott Mink intended to buy drug but his parents hid his car keys. Angered he went into their bedroom and beat them with a hammer until it bole and the stabbed them with a knife 8 times each.
15	Adremy Dennis	October 13, 2004	Kurt Kyle		Adremy Dennis was intending to rob Kurt Kyle. He pointed his gun at Kurt and ordered him to give him his money. Kurt searched his pockets but found he had no money on him Dennis responded by shooting him at point blank range in the head.
16	William Smith	March 8, 2005	Mary Bradford		William Smith was taking cocaine and having a one-night stand with Mary. When he noticed cocaine missing he thought Mary took it. She denied this but William stabbed her eight times and had sex with her dead body.
17	Herman Dale Ashworth	September 27, 2005	Daniel L. Baker		Herman Ashworth was having a drink with Daniel outside of a bar. Herman intended to rob Daniel and kill him to avoid witnesses. He robbed £40 off of him and then beat him with a board so badly that his injuries were consistent with a high speed traffic accident.
18	William James "Flip" Williams, Jr.	October 25, 2005	William Dent Alfonda R. Madison, Sr. Eric Howard and Theodore Wynn, Jr.		Willie Williams returned after a jail sentence to his home town only to find that the victims control the drug market he once owned. He decided to recruit child solders to help kill the victims. He lured the victims to Madison's house and shot all of the most once in the head.
19	John R. Hicks	November 29, 2005	Brandy Green & Maxine Armstrong		John Hicks was on a cocaine binge when he decided to rob his mother in law Maxine Armstrong for cocaine money. He decided to strangle her so he wouldn't be caught. While running away he realized her daughter Brandy could be a witness so he returned to Armstrong's and smothered her with a pillow.
20	Glenn Lee Benner II	February 7, 2006	Trina Bowser Cynthia Sedgwick		Glen Benner abducted Trina Bowser a friend of his and raped her. He then strangled her to death to avoid her testifying against him. Six months later he abducted Cynthia Sedgwick from a concert and strangled her to death in the same manner as Tina.
21	Joseph Lewis Clark	May 2, 2006	David A. Manning Donald B. Harris
22	Rocky Barton	July 12, 2006	Kimbirli Jo Barton
23	Darrell Wayne Ferguson	August 8, 2006	Thomas King Arlie Fugate Mae Fugate
24	Jeffrey Lundgren	October 24, 2006	Dennis Avery Cheryl Avery Trina Avery Rebecca Avery Karen Avery
25	James J. Filiaggi	April 24, 2007	Lisa Huff Filiaggi	Ted Strickland
26	Christopher Newton	May 24, 2007	Jason Brewer
27	Richard Cooey	October 14, 2008	Wendy Offredo Dawn McCreery
28	Gregory Bryant-Bey	November 19, 2008	Dale Pinkelman Pete Mihas
29	Daniel E. Wilson	June 3, 2009	Carol Lutz
30	John Joseph Fautenberry	July 14, 2009	Joseph Daron Jr. Jefferson Difee Gary Farmer Christine Guthrie Donald Nutley
31	Marvallous Keene	July 21, 2009	Sarah Abraham Wendy Cottrill Danita Gullette Marvin Washington Joseph Wilkerson
32	Jason Getsy	August 18, 2009	Ann Serafino
33	Kenneth Biros	December 8, 2009	Tami Engstrom
34	Vernon Lamont Smith	January 7, 2010	Sohail Darwish
35	Mark Aaron Brown	February 4, 2010	Hayder Al-Turk Isam Salman
36	Lawrence Raymond Reynolds	March 16, 2010	Loretta Foster
37	Darryl M. Durr	April 20, 2010	Angel Vincent
38	Michael Francis Beuke	May 13, 2010	Robert Craig
39	William Garner	July 13, 2010	Deondra Freeman Richard Gaines Markeca Mason Mykkila Mason Denitra Satterwhite
40	Roderick Davie	August 10, 2010	John Ira Coleman Tracey Jeffreys
41	Michael W. Benge	October 6, 2010	Judith Gabbard
42	Frank G. Spisak, Jr.	February 17, 2011	Rev. Horace Rickerson Brian Warford Timothy Sheehan	John Kasich
43	Johnnie Ray Baston	March 10, 2011	Chong-Hoon Mah
44	Clarence Carter	April 12, 2011	Johnny Allen
45	Daniel Lee Bedford	May 17, 2011	Gwen Toepfert John Smith
46	Reginald Brooks, Sr.	November 15, 2011	Reginald Brooks, Jr. Vaughn Brooks Niarchos Brooks
47	Mark Wayne Wiles	April 18, 2012	Mark Klima
48	Donald Palmer	September 20, 2012	Charles Sponhaltz Steven Vargo
49	Brett Xavier Hartman	November 13, 2012	Winda Snipes
50	Frederick Treesh	March 6, 2013	Henry Dupree
51	Steven T. Smith	May 1, 2013	Autumn Carter
52	Harry D. Mitts, Jr.	September 25, 2013	John Bryant Sgt. Dennis Glivar Garfield Heights, Ohio police
53	Dennis B. McGuire	January 16, 2014	Joy Stewart

Demographics

The demographic information on the 34 inmates executed in Ohio between February 19, 1999, and January 7, 2010, is as follows:

• Mean Age at Time of Execution: 44 years, 1.9 months
• Mean Time from Death Sentence to Execution: 14 years, 6 months
• Median Time from Death Sentence to Execution: 15 years, 11 months and also were all killed

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States
• Law of Ohio
• List of exonerated death row inmates
• List of United States death row inmates
• List of wrongful convictions in the United States

Bibliography

• Laws Passed in the Territory of the United States North-West of the River Ohio. Philadelphia, PA: Printed by F. Childs and J. Swaine, 1788.; microfiche Buffalo, NY: Hein, 1986.
• Davis, Harry: Death by Law. Columbus, OH: Federal Printing, 1922. (Reprinted from Outlook Magazine).
• DeBeck, William: Murder Will Out: The Murders and Executions of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, OH: 1867.
• DiSalle, Michael: The Power of Life or Death. New York, NY: Random House, 1965.
• Wanger, Eugene G.: "Capital Punishment in Ohio: A Brief History", Ohio Lawyer, November–December 2002, 8, 11, 30.
• Fogle, H. M.: The Palace of Death, or, The Ohio Penitentiary Annex. Columbus, OH: 1908.
• Fornshell, Marvin E.: The Historical and Illustrated Ohio Penitentiary Annex. Columbus, OH: Arthur, W. McGraw, 1997 (reprint of the 1903 original)
• Hixon, Mary, and Frances Hixon: The Last Hangings: Jackson, Ohio 1883-1884. Mary Hixon and Frances Hixon, 1989
• Maynard, Rosina: Ohio's Other Lottery System: The Death Penalty. Columbus, OH: Rosina Maynard, 1980.
• Morgan, Dan: Historical Lights and Shadows of the Ohio State Penitentiary. Columbus, OH: Ohio Penitentiary Printing, 1893.
• Welsh-Huggins, Andrew: No Winners Here Tonight: Race, Politics, and Geography in One of the Country's Busiest Death Penalty States. Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press, 2008
• Streib, Victor L.: The Fairer Death: Executing Women in Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio University Press, 2006

External links

These links are to official State of Ohio records regarding executions in the state and Ohio administrative rules and statutes pertaining to capital punishment in Ohio

• Ohio Executions 1999 to Present from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
• Capital Crimes Annual Reports 2007-2013 from the Ohio Attorney General's Office
• Ohio Administrative Code 5120-9-12 Department of Rehabilitation and Correction -- Inmates sentenced to death (contains institutional rules for death row)
• Ohio Revised Code § 2903.01 Aggravated murder
• Ohio Revised Code § 2929.04 Death penalty or imprisonment -- aggravating and mitigating factors
• Ohio Revised Code §§ 2949.21-2949.31 Execution of sentence
• Ohio Revised Code § 2929.02 Murder penalties
• All Ohio death row inmates
• Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (Location of execution chamber).
• Ohio State Penitentiary (Location of death row for male inmates)
• Ohio Reformatory for Women (Location of death row for female inmates)
• Laws of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio : including the laws of the governor and judges, the Maxwell Code, and the laws of the three sessions of the Territorial Legislature, 1791-1802 : with a sketch of the State of Ohio, the Ordinance of 1787, etc. (The Marietta Code up to one year before Ohio's statehood)
• The statutes of Ohio and of the Northwestern territory, adopted or enacted from 1788 to 1833 inclusive: together with the Ordinance of 1787; the constitutions of Ohio and of the United States, and various public instruments and acts of Congress: illustrated by a preliminary sketch of the history of Ohio; numerous references and notes and copious indexes ... (The Marietta Code updated until 1833)
• Death House tour on YouTube