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The death penalty in Ohio appears to be on the ropes.
First, Gov. Mike DeWine late last year put a moratorium on all state executions for 2021, citing difficulty in getting a drug for lethal injections.
Now both houses of the state Legislature have taken up bills to repeal Ohio's death penalty law.
Senate Bill 103, co-sponsored by Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, is being debated by the Senate's Judiciary Committee, while House Bill 183 has seen debate in three separate House committees.
Multiple efforts over several days to reach Rulli for his comments on why he is one of 11 senators backing the repeal of the death penalty were unsuccessful.
Currently the House bill, which has no local co-sponsors, is being debated by the criminal justice panel.
While lawmakers debate, lobbying efforts are lining up on both sides of the issue. Emotion is playing a key role in the arguments from both sides.
LOCAL VIEW
Miriam Fife, 81, of Cortland, whose 12-year-old son, Raymond, was murdered almost 36 years ago in southwest Warren and whose killer's execution is being hamstrung by an appeal pending in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court, said she was intrigued by recent action by the South Carolina Legislature.
"You know that if they can't get a (execution) drug, they are going to let the inmates choose between the firing squad and the electric chair. I kind of like that solution," Fife said.
The long-suffering mother said she has called several Ohio legislators to urge the South Carolina solution for Ohio's death row inmates but has, so far, received no responses.
"I called (Sen.) Nathan Manning's (R-North Ridgeville) office, and they told me to contact my local legislator. So I put in a call to (Sen.) Sandra O'Brien and she hasn't gotten back to me. Maybe I should give a call to (state Rep.) Mike (O'Brien, D-Warren)," she said.
"I understand that the governor and the legislators are too busy with the pandemic and the recent violence to give consideration to this issue," Fife said. "But for people like me who are victims, this is the priority."
Fife said she doesn't have a lot of faith in the political and legal processes anymore.
"The checks and balances all over the country are not the best right now," said the woman who has waited about 35 years for the execution of her son's killer, Danny Lee Hill.
OPPONENTS
Meanwhile, a news conference was held Tuesday seeking support for the anti-death penalty forces.
The Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr., executive director of Ohio Council of Churches and relative of a murder victim, said he can identify with those victims who are frustrated by the increasing number of violent acts.
"But our moral character has to govern us in our response," Sullivan said.
Turning to his Christian faith, Sullivan said he cannot differentiate between a life-ending act on a Cleveland street and the same calculated response committed by the state in a Chillicothe prison.
"Killing is wrong," he said.
To illustrate a response for an alternative to capital punishment, Sullivan said he remembered as a kid, a fire engines responding to a fire next door.
"The water was needed to extinguish the fire," Sullivan said. "And Jesus responded by throwing water on the public execution process on the woman caught in adultery."
Two members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus participated in the news conference, including Sen. Hearcel Craig of Columbus and Rep. Stephanie Howse of Cleveland. The legislators indicated that they would work diligently to move SB 103 and HB 183 through the Legislature.
The president of the caucus, state Rep. Thomas West, D-Canton, said the bills had the "full support" of the caucus.
"Senate Bill 103 and House Bill 183 have received broader support than any prior repeal efforts," West said.
During the conference, Craig spoke about many innocent people who have been sentenced to death in Ohio, as well as its disproportionate impact on black Ohioans.
Howse said of six innocent men who were sent to death row from Cuyahoga County, five were black.
"We can no longer ignore that black lives are consistently devalued by a justice system that should idealize fairness and accuracy," Howse said.
Joia Thornton, national policy strategist for Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, noted that Hispanic and black people make up 31 percent of the U.S. population but account for 53 percent of the people on death row.
SUPPORTERS
Lou Tobin, president of the Ohio Prosecutors Association, said the death penalty still has a place in Ohio for the worst of the worst offenders and their heinious crimes.
"It is our position that the death penalty is important enough to put it to a vote of the people and find out what they really want," Tobin said.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, in also rejecting this anti-death penalty legislation, takes the side for the victims.
"The law needs to have finality for everyone," Watkins said -- noting that the Feb. 16, 2022, execution date for Trumbull County multiple killer Stanley Ted Adams is drawing near.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com