Ohioans to Stop Executions (OTSE) and the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) and will present a special event on the death penalty on February 25 in Tiffin, OH. There will be a presentation at 11 a.m. in Herbster Chapel on Heidelberg University’s campus followed by another at 2 p.m. in Tiffin University’s Marion Center. Both presentations are free and open to the public.
Kendall White, OTSE Deputy Director, will be joined by Derrick Jameson who was exonerated from Ohio’s death row. They will be joined by Pierce Reed, Director for Policy and Engagement for the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP).
Derrick Jameson was falsely convicted of the murder of a Cincinnati bartender in 1985 and sentenced to death. Jamison did not fit the eyewitness descriptions of the men who committed the murder, and police withheld evidence that a key witness had identified two other men as the perpetrators. In exchange for a reduced sentence, a man who had been charged as an accomplice in the killing falsely testified that Jamison had committed the murder. During his 20 years on Ohio’s death row, Derrick was scheduled to be executed six times but received a stay from the Governor each time. His last stay came just 90 minutes before he was set to be executed.
OTSE is the only single-issue death penalty repeal organization in Ohio. OTSE represents millions of Ohioans who oppose the death penalty. They are the lead organization in the #NoDeathPenaltyOhio campaign to abolish Ohio’s capital punishment system. OTSE cites racial disparity, financial considerations and concerns of innocence as the primary reasons for its efforts. Both OTSE and OIP have been leading efforts to abolish the death penalty in Ohio. Nationally, 200 people have been exonerated after receiving a death sentence. 11 of those people were exonerated from Ohio’s death row including three men represented by OIP.
Since its inception in 2003, the Ohio Innocence Project has released 42 wrongfully convicted Ohioans who have spent over 800 years total in prison for crimes they did not commit. It is the only Ohio-based nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing innocent persons, as well as educating the public on the flaws of our legal system and the societal issues that lead to such injustices. OIP is now also working on bills that would abolish the death penalty, allow courts to consider more DNA evidence and help original crime victims in wrongful conviction cases obtain restitution from the state.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued a temporary halt to executions in 2019 after a federal judge declared its three-drug protocol to be cruel and unusual because of the pain it inflicts on prisoners. DeWine stated that “we certainly cannot have any executions in Ohio” until a new method was developed. Ohio currently has 114 inmates on death row. Attorney General, Dave Yost, is supporting a legislative effort to bring nitrogen gas executions to Ohio. Yost said that implementing this method would solve the problem of finding new drugs and bring an end to the unofficial death penalty moratorium imposed by Gov. DeWine. Alabama first adopted this method in January. State officials in Alabama said the process was humane and effective, while critics called it cruel and experimental. A statewide public opinion poll of voters’ views on capital punishment shows that most of the Ohioans support repealing the death penalty in favor of life without parole.
Contact Dr. Sarah Lazzari at slazzari@heidelberg.edu or Dr. Steven Hurwitz at shurwitz@tiffin.edu for more information or with any questions.