DEAR EDITOR:

We write in support of House Bill 183 and Senate Bill 103 in the Ohio General Assembly that would abolish the death penalty in Ohio.

What is remarkable is there is a growing concern among Republicans about the cost

and ineffectiveness of the death penalty.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, a drafter of Ohio’s death penalty law, concluded that “the death penalty law is not being applied as we originally intended.” Terry Collins, who attended the execution of 33 men, wondered every time, “What if we got it wrong?”

It has been estimated that death penalty cases cost 10 times more and take many more years in the courts than non-death penalty cases. Victims’ families suffer longer. Geographic and racial disparities abound.

The Ohio branch of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty says, “We have come to the conclusion that the death penalty does not work and can’t be made to work.”

We agree.

ALICE LYND

STAUGHTON LYND

Niles