Ohio's Death Penalty Needs A Time-Out

Tyrone Noling

Tyrone Noling

Following the news of the nation’s 140th death row exoneration, which was also Ohio’s 6th, comes a story in The Atlantic about another disturbing case in the Buckeye State.  Tyrone Noling remains sentenced to die despite:

  • No physical evidence against him
  • Recanting witnesses who may have been coerced
  • An alternative suspect who seems to never have been thoroughly investigated
  • The state refusing to support a DNA test that might shed light on the accuracy of the conviction.

You know, the usual stuff.

Ohio has 13 executions scheduled, but wrongful death sentences, botched executions like that of Romell Broom which have led the courts to harshly admonish Ohio officials, expressions of concern from a state Supreme Court judge and a former Attorney General (authors of Ohio’s death penalty law), and from a warden who oversaw 33 executions, all suggest that the state could use a time-out.

A task force is currently studying how Ohio administers capital punishment. Shouldn’t Ohio, at the very least, suspend executions while this study is underway?  If you think so, you should let Ohio Governor John Kasich know.

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18 thoughts on “Ohio's Death Penalty Needs A Time-Out

  1. The death penalty doesn't work. It's never worked and it never will. I understand about revenge, but personally, if you really wanted to punish me life in prison would be far worse than death. Also – STOP KILLING PEOPLE WHO ARE PROBABLY INNOCENT!

  2. Hospitals have started having a time-out before surgery, to make sure they have the right procedure for the right patient, so that they don't amputate the wrong limb, or do a surgery on the wrong patient. Yet it's OK to proceed with KILLING SOMEONE without the same precautions???? Can someone……Givernor Kasich, for example…..please explain that to me????

  3. The death penalty doesn’t work. It’s never worked and it never will. I understand about revenge, but personally, if you really wanted to punish me life in prison would be far worse than death. Also – STOP KILLING PEOPLE WHO ARE PROBABLY INNOCENT!

  4. Hospitals have started having a time-out before surgery, to make sure they have the right procedure for the right patient, so that they don’t amputate the wrong limb, or do a surgery on the wrong patient. Yet it’s OK to proceed with KILLING SOMEONE without the same precautions???? Can someone……Givernor Kasich, for example…..please explain that to me????

  5. Carol, most people sit on death row for decades while they exhaust their appeals. They take precautions

  6. Yeah, Josh…. and they still likely execute the wrong guy
    6 out of 39 times in Ohio and likely elsewhere too …..
    and That's Just WRONG

  7. If you haven't figured it out by now the justice system isn't for the innocence. Before a person is convicted the judicial system is on his/her side (the defendant) and against the victim (the plantiff). Even if the person who is innocent but found guilty, the system is still on the side of the defendant (which in this case becomes the system) and against the victim (the convict). The system protects the rights of the guilty but abuses the rights of the innocent. Now how is that right? While the victim is needed to put the guilty behind bars the system in no way can guarantee and will ever protect the victim from harm. While the victim does not need to know the whereabouts of the suspect, the suspect must know the whereabouts of the victim so that he/she/they do not violate court orders. Now if that isn't messed up then I don't know what else is. There are ways to prevent suspects from knowing the location of victims without revealing their locations, yet the system does not utilize them. The entire nation needs a time-out and a re-vamping of the judicial system branch.

  8. Carol, most people sit on death row for decades while they exhaust their appeals. They take precautions

  9. Yeah, Josh…. and they still likely execute the wrong guy
    6 out of 39 times in Ohio and likely elsewhere too …..
    and That’s Just WRONG

  10. on the other hand, we, the citizens pay enormous amounts to build new prisons, feed and house guilty prisoners for years. The guilty eat up our tax money by appeals. The system is flawed for sure, but, more often than less, the prisoner is Guilty! After years of new trials, all of a sudden a witness changes his testimony… why didn't that happen in the first trial!?!?!?
    Pretty soon, we will more prisons than safe neighborhoods.

  11. If you haven’t figured it out by now the justice system isn’t for the innocence. Before a person is convicted the judicial system is on his/her side (the defendant) and against the victim (the plantiff). Even if the person who is innocent but found guilty, the system is still on the side of the defendant (which in this case becomes the system) and against the victim (the convict). The system protects the rights of the guilty but abuses the rights of the innocent. Now how is that right? While the victim is needed to put the guilty behind bars the system in no way can guarantee and will ever protect the victim from harm. While the victim does not need to know the whereabouts of the suspect, the suspect must know the whereabouts of the victim so that he/she/they do not violate court orders. Now if that isn’t messed up then I don’t know what else is. There are ways to prevent suspects from knowing the location of victims without revealing their locations, yet the system does not utilize them. The entire nation needs a time-out and a re-vamping of the judicial system branch.

  12. on the other hand, we, the citizens pay enormous amounts to build new prisons, feed and house guilty prisoners for years. The guilty eat up our tax money by appeals. The system is flawed for sure, but, more often than less, the prisoner is Guilty! After years of new trials, all of a sudden a witness changes his testimony… why didn’t that happen in the first trial!?!?!?
    Pretty soon, we will more prisons than safe neighborhoods.