Death Penalty

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On March 16, 2016 the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in State v. Broom, 2016-Ohio-1028. In a 4-3 opinion written by Justice Lanzinger, the court held that a second attempt to execute Romell Broom, after the first attempt at lethal injection failed, was neither cruel and usual punishment nor a…

On February 19, 2016, the court set October 17, 2019, as the execution date for James P. Frazier, who was convicted of murdering Mary Stevenson in 2004 in the Northgate Apartments in North Toledo where both lived, during a robbery of her apartment. Justice Pfeifer dissented, joined by Justice O’Neill.  What Justice Pfeifer wrote is…

Case Background

On April 30, 1996, Willie Herring and five other men robbed a bar in Youngstown which resulted in the deaths of three people. Herring, who was barely eighteen at the time of the crime, was subsequently convicted of three counts of complicity to commit aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder, two…

Update: On March 16, 2016, the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in State v. Broom.  Read the analysis of that decision here.

“Are you arguing that the Constitution requires a quick and painless death in and of itself?” Justice Lanzinger, to defense counsel.

“What is the assurance [the state] is going…

Update: On March 16, 2016, the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in State v. Broom.  Read the analysis of that decision here.

Read the analysis of the oral argument here.

On June 9, 2015, the Supreme Court of Ohio will hear oral argument in the case of State of Ohio v. …

Update: This case was sent back for resentencing. Read what happened on remand here.

On December 3, 2014, the Supreme Court of Ohio handed down a merit decision in State v. Herring, 2014-Ohio-5228. In a 4-3 opinion written by Justice Paul Pfeifer, the court granted Herring’s petition for post-conviction relief in this death penalty…

Now retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote this in her separate concurrence in the landmark case of Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, the 2002 decision that changed the landscape in judicial elections by giving judges and judicial candidates more free speech (and some say unwisely so):

“ I am concerned…