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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > January > 30 > Entry
Guest column: For victims or taxpayers, death penalty no solution
This commentary was written by Terry Collins, a retired director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
During my 32-year career with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, I was a warden, regional director, assistant director and then director. I observed the execution of 33 men between 2001 and 2010.
All 33 times, in the back of my mind, I asked myself:
Had all the reviews and appeals gotten this case right? Did the process make certain — absolutely — that there was no mistake? I wondered that because I also had walked people out of prison who were found not guilty after years of incarceration.
Our judicial and corrections system is among the finest in the world. We have some of the best attorneys, judges and corrections personnel anywhere. It is the envy of many nations. Yet we continue to be one of the few industrialized nations to carry out the death penalty — even though we know mistakes happen periodically.
Justice Paul Pfeifer, who recently said the death penalty should be abolished, wants a debate about the policy.
Pfeifer’s remarks received a lot of public attention, in part, because he wrote the death penalty law when he was a legislator, and he’s observed its implementation from the state’s highest court.
He believes it’s exceedingly difficult for the death penalty to be administered justly. The death penalty is expensive, often inefficient and always time-consuming. Too often our justice system does not place the worst of the worst on death row.
I saw some of the worst offenders in our prison system, and often they were not on death row. It surprised me, at times, to see who did end up on death row. I think this disparity is important for state leaders to address.
I am convinced that the death penalty is not a responsible financial policy. It costs millions of dollars to execute people in Ohio, more than life imprisonment. Those costs begin at trail and continue through appeals to pay for lawyers, judges and prisons.
The county and state resources that go into two separate trials in death penalty cases (one to decide innocence or guilt and the second to decide life or death) adds up quickly before anyone spends a single day on death row.
Then the appeals begin, compounding these enormous costs.
It is also expensive to maintain death rows once offenders begin to serve their time there. Costs related to the death penalty should be of serious concern, given our state’s need for cost-effective judicial reform.
There is another cost that we do not always consider: that borne by victims’ families. It is traumatic for the families of victims to be recalled into courts year after year due to so many death penalty appeals.
I saw the emotions of the victims’ families. An increasing number of families ask the state not to pursue the death penalty so that they are not faced with the painful task of attending appeals hearings, and so they can achieve closure.
Life imprisonment without parole offers justice that is swift, certain, effectively severe and perhaps more sensitive to the needs of healing victims’ families.
Since life without parole became an option in Ohio, the number of death sentences has been drastically reduced. Many have deemed this alternative to be a reasonable measure and a way to keep Ohio communities safe.
Whether they support or oppose the death penalty, Ohioans should take notice that one of the greatest critics of capital punishment is the same man who once supported it and worked to make it law.
The reasonable course for state officials is to begin to have serious conversations about whether Ohio’s death penalty remains necessary, fair and effective. My experience tells me that our justice system can be even more effective and fair without death rows.
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