DeWine mulls clemency for death row inmates
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With about two months left in his term, Gov. Mike DeWine is looking at possibly commuting the sentences of some inmates on death row.
Dan Tierney, the governor's spokesman, said Monday: "It happens every year. It's not new or novel. But it's the end of the governor's term, and governors and presidents tend to look at clemency at the end of their administrations. What's unusual is the amount of cases."
There are 106 people on Ohio's death row.
Tierney said DeWine, a Republican, won't do a blanket commutation of every death penalty case.
"He's looking on a case-by-case basis," Tierney said. "The governor has not made a decision because he cannot without the parole board having a hearing and a recommendation."
State law requires the Ohio Parole Board to have a hearing and a recommendation before the governor can decide on granting clemency, Tierney said. The governor may also independently direct the parole board to conduct the investigation with notice given to the prosecutor, judge and, if they requested notification, the victim's immediate family - all of whom have the right to be heard.
"It requires notice," Tierney said. "A lot of affected parties would have to receive notice."
If any death row inmate receives clemency, their sentence would be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Tierney said.
Lou Tobin, executive director for the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said Monday that prosecutors in at least 10 counties, including Mahoning, were told that death-sentence cases from their counties were going to be in front of the parole board.
That inmate is Scott A. Group, sentenced to death for the Jan. 18, 1997, shooting death of Robert Lozier and the shooting of his wife, Sandra, at their Downtown Bar in Youngstown.
Group's execution date has been repeatedly moved with Feb. 13, 2030, being his latest scheduled execution date.
No requests were made of the Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office, Tobin said.
Five Trumbull County residents and three from Mahoning County are on Ohio's death row.
The association is denouncing DeWine's "planned commutation of multiple death sentences in the waning days of his administration," Tobin said. DeWine is reviewing them, but no decisions have been made, Tierney said.
Tobin said: "A number of prosecutors across the state have been notified that the governor is in the process of commuting one or more death sentences from their county. This is very concerning. The commutation process typically takes months and provides prosecutors, the victim's family ad the public ample opportunity to express their concerns. Doing this in a short amount of time before he leaves office raises serious questions about whether he is honoring the state's obligation to the victims of these crimes and to the public."
Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro said the association "correctly points out that the governor's hasty actions regarding potential commutation of death sentences in Ohio thwarts the process established by law for considering commutations. The governor's actions are troubling. Gov. DeWine took an oath to uphold the law and these actions, under these circumstances, undermine that oath.
During his nearly eight years as governor, DeWine has commuted the sentence of only one death row inmate - Gregory Lott. On May 27, DeWine granted clemency to Lott, reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the 1986 murder of 82-year-old John McGrath of East Cleveland. The parole board voted 6-2 in 2020 to recommend life without parole for Lott because he is intellectually disabled to a degree that would bar the death penalty under existing law.
DeWine on June 16 said he opposes the death penalty as it is not a deterrent against violent crimes.
DeWine said at the time: "The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists. For the state to take a human life, in my opinion, there must be evidence that in doing so, it will help protect the public."
DeWine stopped executions in Ohio when he became governor in 2019, after a federal judge ruled on the same day he started his first term that the state's drug lethal injection was inhumane.
DeWine has granted numerous reprieves since then and has said that pharmaceutical companies wouldn't sell other needed, therapeutic drugs to states that use lethal injections.
DeWine, however, didn't offer reprieves to anyone on death row and declined to say during the June 16 announcement if he would do that before his term ends Jan. 11.
Regarding DeWine's look at commuting some death-row inmates, the ACLU of Ohio said: "We are very encouraged that Gov. DeWine is considering individual cases for clemency. The death penalty in Ohio is irreparably broken, and the ACLU of Ohio has long been echoing the call for meaningful executive action to address this injustice. The time for commutations is now. The Ohio Constitution grants governors unique authority over the state capital punishment system and clemency powers belong to the executive branch for a reason."
Before winning the Nov. 3 governor's race, Democrat Amy Acton said she would "continue the moratorium on the death penalty. I think Gov. DeWine laid out a very good case. I believe people should be put in prison, life without parole and you throw away the key."
She also said she would "absolutely consider" abolishing the death penalty in Ohio.
Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell, president of the county prosecuting attorneys association, said of DeWine: "Using the executive clemency process this way completely undermines the decisions of the prosecutors who brought these cases, the parties who sat and listened to horrific facts, considered the evidence and voted to recommend a death sentence, and the judges who imposes these sentences."
Fornshell added: "Even worse is the renewed pain that this is going to cause the families of these victims and over the holidays to boot. It is just wrong for him to do this on his way out the door with zero accountability to the communities and families that it affects."
The death penalty was reinstated in Ohio in 1981 after being declared unconstitutional in 1972. But the state didn't resume carrying out executions until 1999 with DeWine stopping them in 2019.
During the time when executions occurred, 56 people died by lethal injection in Ohio.
The last 10 executions in the state took an average of 21 years to carry out from the time a person was sentenced to death, DeWine said in June.