'No Sense'

"Ohio Supreme Court justice: Death penalty 'makes no sense'," is the title of Alan Johnson's Columbus Dispatch report.

Ohio’s senior Supreme Court justice, Paul E. Pfeifer, told lawmakers this morning that Ohio has a “death lottery,” not a death penalty.

“I have concluded that the death sentence makes no sense when you can have life with out the possibility of parole. I don’t see what society gains,” he told the House Criminal Justice Committee.

“If you aren’t going to consider this, who will? If not now, when? If not you, who?” Pfeifer asked.

The legislative panel is considering House Bill 160, which would abolish the death penalty in Ohio.

Pfeifer, a maverick Republican from Bucyrus who is ending his 19th year on the court, has been advocating abolishment of the death penalty for nearly two years.

Pfeifer was one of three Republican state senators who resurrected Ohio's death-penalty law in 1981 after the old law had been declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The AP filing is, "Ohio lawmakers hear from death penalty opponents, including state Supreme Court justice."  It's by Andrew Welsh-Huggins and is via the Republic.

An Ohio Supreme Court justice who helped write the state's death penalty law says Ohio is no longer well-served by it.

Justice Paul Pfeifer (PY'-fur) says the law's application has become hit-or-miss, depending on where a crime is committed and what the county prosecutor's attitude is.

Pfeifer urged the Ohio House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to approve a bill that would scrap the 30-year-old law.

Hearings on the bill come as a state Supreme Court task force studies Ohio's law to make sure it works as it should.

"Death penalty opponents make plea to Ohio lawmakers," by Michael Henrich of WNMO-TV.

Pfeifer helped write the law enacted in 1981, but grew skeptical that prosecutors were using it fairly and this year called for its abolition.

Hearings on the bill come as a Supreme Court task force studies Ohio's death penalty law to make sure it works as it should.

But Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor has made it clear that the task force group is not to consider a ban.

The anti-death penalty bill is sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Ted Celeste of Columbus and Nickie Antonio of suburban Cleveland.

Kevin Werner of Ohioans to Stop Executions is live-tweeting the legislative committee hearing.

More on Ohio House Bill 160 is available at the link.

Earlier coverage of the Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio’s Death Penalty begins at the link.