Is the death penalty dying?

EXECUTIONS AT 10-YEAR LOW

Death penalty on decline across U.S., report shows

Friday, December 15, 2006

Alan Johnson

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Is the death penalty dying?

Ohio bucked the downward national trend this year with five executions (a sixth was postponed earlier this month). That was second only to Texas, which had 24.

Two executions are scheduled in the first five weeks next year after Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland takes office: Kenneth Biros, of Trumbull County, on Jan. 23, and James Filiaggi, of Lorain County, on Feb. 13. Ohio has had 24 executions since Gov. Bob Taft took office in 1999.

However, the state appears to be in sync with the rest of the country in other regards.

Consider these 2006 national statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center’s annual report, released yesterday:

• The 53 executions were a 10-year low.

• The 114 death sentences handed down were the fewest in three decades.

• The Death Row population declined for the fifth straight year, to 3,366.

Ohio juries handed down just four death sentences this year. In the past six years, Ohio had an average of six death-penalty sentences annually, half of the number handed down per year in the 1990s.

There are 191 inmates on Ohio’s Death Row, a decrease from 195 in 2005 and a high of more than 200 a few years ago.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit clearinghouse for capital-punishment research and information, said the numbers could stem from declining support for executions, especially in view of increased use of life-in-prison sentences without the possibility of parole.

"Capital punishment is risky, expensive and could result in irreversible error," Dieter said. "Fewer people are now willing to put their faith in such a flawed policy."

The report cited legal concerns in two areas: mental illness and lethal injection.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton was highlighted for her opinion in a death-penalty case in which she urged Ohio lawmakers to "consider legislation setting the criteria for determining when a person with a severe metal illness should be excluded from the penalty of death."

Stratton noted that mental retardation can be more-readily measured, while mental illnesses "vary widely in severity."

Death-penalty opponents say that lethal injection — the chemical method of execution used in Ohio and most other states — might be causing inmates excruciating but undetected pain because of the strong anesthetics involved.

The injection controversy was a factor in postponement of two Ohio executions: Jerome Henderson on Dec. 5 and Jeffrey Hill on June 15. Neither one has been rescheduled.

Incoming Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat, has indicated that he would support a full study of the death penalty.

ajohnson@dispatch.com