Tagged: Death Penalty

An Ohio Supreme Court committee studying the state's capital punishment law plans to vote on recommendations today requiring the collection of data to detect racial bias in death penalty cases.

The data would include a review of past cases as well as collecting information in the future on all homicides that might be eligible for capital punishment.  Other recommendations would require prosecutors, lawyers and judges involved in death penalty cases to be trained to protect against racial bias.

A state Supreme Court task force analyzing the effectiveness of Ohio's capital punishment law plans another
meeting today as part of its year-long review.

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor convened the task force while making it clear it won't debate whether the state should have the death penalty.

The panel has discussed whether Ohio should consider a statewide approach to charging murder defendants with death penalty charges to avoid disparities that arise from county to county.

Ohio officials say the state is asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling that Ohio's protocol for carrying out lethal injections is constitutional.

Gov. John Kasich and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement yesterday that the state will ask the high court to reverse a federal appeals court decision delaying the Wednesday execution of Charles Lorraine.