Death Penalty

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Update: On November 5, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Mason’s cert. petition

On April 18, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in State v. Mason, 2018-Ohio-1462. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Fischer, with two appellate judges subbing for Justices O’Donnell and O’Neill, the Court upheld…

Remember Alva Campbell? He was a decrepit 69-year-old inmate on death row, who was supposed to be executed on November 15, 2017. Campbell committed heinous crimes, no question about it.  But he had also been in miserable health, using a walker to get around, apparently suffering from lung cancer, COPD, respiratory failure, and prostate cancer.…

Update: On April 18, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in this case.  Read the analysis here.  

“Does it matter that in Ohio if the jury had not recommended death, the trial court would have no authority to impose death?”

Justice French, to defense counsel

On January 23, 2018, the…

Update: On April 18, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in this case.  Read the analysis here.  

On January 23, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio will hear oral argument in the case, State of Ohio v. Maurice Mason, 2017-0200. At issue in the case is whether, under…

On March 13, 2017, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor filed a motion in the Supreme Court of Ohio to set an execution date for Romell Broom. This is just one of many such motions in Ohio. But with Broom this request is different, because the state tried to execute Broom on September 15, 2009, but after…

The state is back in federal court seeking to resume executions in Ohio. Ronald Phillips is set to be executed January 12, 2017, for the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s three year old daughter in 1993.

Ohio uses lethal injection as its method of execution. The last person to be put to death in…

Further Update: On December 12, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Broom”s petition.

Update: Read the state’s brief in opposition here.

In State v. Broom, 2016-Ohio-1028, the Supreme Court of Ohio decided in a 4-3 opinion written by Justice Judy Lanzinger that a second attempt to carry out the death penalty after the first…

Update: On December 21, 2016, the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in this case. Read the analysis here.

“A non-capital defendant is afforded an appellate review that is not discretionary. The appellate court has to do that. In a capital case, they (capital defendants) get a bite at the apple of…