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Commentary: Voices rise up against death penalty in Ohio

Gary Stelzer Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer

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By Mary McCarty, Staff Writer Updated 2:07 AM Sunday, February 6, 2011

One of the most chilling scenes in the Coen brothers’ “True Grit” is the town square hanging — the equivalent of a county fair in the Old West. Hotel rooms filled up, parents brought the kiddies to town to enjoy the spectacle.

I turned my head away, unable to watch this chillingly realistic depiction of our barbarous past.

The film is set in 1878, but it raised a nagging question that wouldn’t leave me:

Will future generations look at the death penalty in Ohio, 2011 — when we’re outranked only by Texas in the pace of our executions — with the same degree of disgust?

Actually, there’s no need to travel far into the future to find outrage over America’s system of capital punishment. A growing chorus of voices is calling for a re-examination of the death penalty in Ohio. Among the most powerful voices: Ohio’s Catholic bishops; Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer; former attorney general Jim Petro; and former state prison director Terry Collins.

The sole U.S. manufacturer of pentobarbital — the sedative Ohio plans to use to execute death row inmates — has asked the state to stop using the drug, stating that “it goes against everything we’re in business to do.” England and Italy balked at importing the drugs previously used in executions to the U.S.

And now, some political leaders are calling for Ohio to re-examine the death penalty — even Pfeifer, who served as chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee when Ohio debated the capital punishment bill in 1981.

“The time has come to put an end to the death penalty,” he said. “The governor should commute the sentences of everyone on death row to life without the possibility of parole. For the majority of them that wasn’t an option at the time of their sentencing.”

State Rep. Ted Celeste, D-Grandview Heights, is drafting a bill calling for the end to the death penalty in Ohio.

“I don’t know if I’m so excited about Ohio being right up there next to Texas,” said Celeste, who is actively seeking co-sponsors.

He observed that many people aren’t aware that “life without possibility of parole means exactly that.”

Celeste’s conversations with Petro and Pfeifer, a former Republican lawmaker, have convinced him the issue could draw bi-partisan support. “I’m not naive,” he added, “I don’t believe that because Pfeifer had an R next to his name when he drafted the statute means that all his former colleagues will line up with him. But in light of a discussion of the budget, I don’t know if this is a liberal or conservative issue. It’s a matter of how much it costs.”

Celeste is referring not only to the extravagant cost of protracted litigation, but also the emotional toll on victims’ families.

Wrongful convictions also are weighing heavily on the minds of those weighing the death penalty, an issue spotlighted by Petro in his recently published book, “False Justice,” co-written with his wife Nancy.

Petro hasn’t decided if he’s against the death penalty, but believes it’s time for Ohio to revisit the issue. Like Pfeifer, he was instrumental in crafting the original statute, and he’s disappointed with its application. “It was supposed to be applied in the most heinous of crimes, the worst of the worst, and that has not been the case,” Petro said. “There are many crimes when the death sentence was inconsistent with comparable crimes around the state. The uniformity is not what we thought it might be.”

Pfeifer noted that race and geography can play a huge role in the death sentence. Equally troubling, he said, “is the company we keep with the other countries that have the death penalty: China, Saudi Arabia, Iran. It’s a short list, and not comfortable company.”

Opposition to the death penalty has long been a political orphan, with politicians tripping over themselves to sound tough on crime. Will there be fallout for those who get involved?

“I don’t think so, Pfeifer said. “This is a serious time, and the citizens of Ohio expect their public officials to face up to the tough and important issues in our society.”

In a strongly worded news release Friday, the Catholic Bishops of Ohio urged Gov. John Kasich and Ohio legislators to end the death penalty, stating, “Every human being is a child of God, no matter what sins the person commits. Every human life has infinite dignity because it is designed by God to be immortal.”

Kevin Werner, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions, said for the first time in a long time, the momentum is building against capital punishment. He added, “America is supposed to be a shining beacon for the rest of the world. But with the death penalty, we’re not.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@Dayton DailyNews.com.

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