COLUMBUS — Death penalty opponents on Wednesday again proposed legislation in the Ohio House to replace such sentences with one of life in prison without parole, but this time there was a significant difference.
One of the chief sponsors is a Republican.
Rep. Niraj Antani (R., Miamisburg) said he sees his position as consistent with the party’s anti-abortion platform. But he admitted he could deliver perhaps only five GOP votes.
He pointed to Ohio’s recent struggles to obtain its preferred drugs for lethal injection as U.S. and European drug makers balk at their use to put someone to death. A current moratorium imposed by Gov. John Kasich will delay another execution in Ohio until early next year at the earliest. The last execution was in early 2014.
“Right now there is an indefinite wait on the death penalty,” Mr. Antani said. “There doesn’t seem to be any positive movement (for the state) to acquire these drugs. If we’re not going to be able to acquire the drugs, and we’re certainly not going to go back to other methods of execution ... that provides yet another reason to repeal the death penalty.”
Mr. Antani joined Rep. Nicki Antonio (D., Lakewood) in sponsoring the bill, a measure Ms. Antonio has repeatedly proposed in the past with no movement. Sen. Edna Brown (D., Toledo) has had a similar bill pending for years in the upper chamber.
Opponents of the death penalty point to recent cases in which condemned inmates have been exonerated thanks to DNA evidence and argue that it costs taxpayers far more to litigate court appeals for decades than to incarcerate someone for life.
But the General Assembly has recently seemed to move in the opposite direction.
Late last year it passed a bill offering at least temporary secrecy to compounding pharmacies that might be convinced to replicate either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, both barbiturates, from scratch to get around bans enacted by their manufacturers.
John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said he believes support for the death penalty within the General Assembly is holding firm.
“We believe the death penalty serves an appropriate purpose,” he said. “... It carries out the objective of retribution in many cases, which is a legitimate objective. It does deter murders, and there have been studies that support that.”
Representatives of several faith-based organizations demonstrated support for the bill, suggesting it might be time to again consider putting the question of the death penalty directly to voters via a ballot initiative.
Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.
First Published July 16, 2015, 4:00 a.m.