Ohioans to Stop Executions

            Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE) was founded in 1987.  Its purpose is to end the use of capital punishment in the State of Ohio.  The views of the members that underlie that purpose are many, but can be summarized into two broad categories: 1) A moral commitment to life that precludes the purposeful killing of any human being and/or 2) Recognition that the death penalty as it is being implemented in Ohio is not fairly or accurately applied.

            Since 2003, OTSE has united death penalty opponents and death penalty supporters in the call for a moratorium on executions in Ohio while a comprehensive study of the flaws in Ohio’s death penalty system is conducted and its findings are addressed.  OTSE is a statewide coalition with local chapters and affiliates in every major geographic region of the state including Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton/Miami Valley, Lorain County, and Toledo.  OTSE is also comprised of numerous statewide partners including the League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Ohio Catholic Conference, the American Friends Service Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, and many others.

1. Become a member of Ohioans to Stop Executions
2. Attend a local chapter meeting
3. Pass a Moratorium Resolution in your church, civic / community group, etc.
4. Become Involved in the Ohio Moratorium Campaign.
5. Become Involved in Clemency Campaigns for upcoming executions.
6. For more information email or call: 513-579-8547 ; OTSE.org@gmail.com
   

Day of Action to: STAND UP for an END TO EXECUTIONS

Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Columbus, Ohio
Register Now!

Schedule of Events:

10am-12noon (optional)

Welcome address from OTSE President
Morning sessions: Prayer Vigil, Teach-in
Low-cost boxed lunches will be available for purchase

12noon-2pm

March to the Statehouse
Rally on the Statehouse lawn, complete with celebrity guests!

2pm-4pm (optional)

Lobby visits to state legislators

Everyone who registers in advance will receive a FREE T-SHIRT at the Day of Action.If you have questions or want to register a large group, please email
OTSE.org@gmail.com or stopthedeathpenalty@acluohio.org.

Issues Surrouding Ohio’s Death Penalty

Innocence

• Five innocent people have been freed from death row in Ohio, while at the same time 26 people have been executed. That's a ratio of five executions to one exoneration - worse than the national   average of eight executions for one exoneration.

• A study by the University of Cincinnati Law School found that 75 of the 173 Ohio death penalty cases they examined relied at least partly on jailhouse informants, accomplices, and/or eyewitnesses – all factors identified by legal experts as leading to wrongful convictions.  

• Nearly one-quarter of Ohio’s death row (23%) comes from just one county – Hamilton – even though that county accounts for only nine percent of Ohio murders – and an even smaller percentage of Ohio’s population.

• Forty-nine of Ohio’s 88 counties have no one on death row.  74% of the total death row population comes from only 10 counties.
  
  
• In a two-year study of 1,936 capital indictments in Ohio, the Ohio Associated Press found that Ohio’s death penalty was geographically uneven and noted that in Cuyahoga County, only eight percent of capital defendants actually received a death sentence, compared with 43% in Hamilton County.
  

• Nearly 70% of the people on Ohio’s death row are there for the murder of a white person, even though more than half of all homicide victims are black.

• In 2001 the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit noted that the racial imbalance on Ohio’s death row is “glaringly extreme” and “to say the least, extremely troubling,” yet they were unable to act because of prior rulings by the United States Supreme Court that restricted court considerations of racially discriminatory patterns in death sentencing. 

Ohio has executed people with severe mental illness

• Jay Scott was diagnosed with schizophrenia while on death row.  During his years on death row, his disturbed behavior included setting fire to his cell, banging his head against the wall, and fouling his food and then eating it.  He told relatives he was looking forward to attending a basketball game scheduled for the day after his execution. He was executed in 2001.  

• Wilford Berry attempted suicide 11 times, beginning at age 11.  He suffered extreme sexual and physical abuse throughout childhood.  He was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia at age 14 but did not receive adequate treatment.  Absent medical care, Berry fell into crime.  In 1989, he was arrested for murder and agreed to cooperate with police on the condition that Ohio seek the death penalty against him.  Berry refused to assist his lawyer at trial and did not file any appeals.  He finally received his suicide wish in 1999, when he became the first person to be executed in Ohio in 35 years.

• Consistent with national trends, Ohio’s current death sentencing rate represents a significant drop over the last decade.  As of 1998, prosecutors secured a death sentence in half of all capital trials in the state.
  
  
• Only four death sentences were imposed in Ohio in 2006 – more than 85% of Ohio’s death penalty cases resulted in a sentence of life without parole instead of death upon sentencing.