"Strickland has to decide killer's fate," is the title of Alan Johnson's report in the Columbus Dispatch.
When does one murderer deserve to live while others die?
That's the weighty question the Ohio Parole Board handed Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday by recommending that Richard Nields should not be executed next month for killing his longtime girlfriend, Patricia Newsome, 59, in an alcohol-induced rage on March 27, 1997.
The day before Nields' 60th birthday, the board split 4-3 in urging clemency for the Hamilton County man, who is scheduled to be lethally injected June 10 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
Strickland, a Democrat, former Methodist minister and prison psychologist, has rejected clemency 14 of 15 times in his first term as governor; all 14 men were executed.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters strongly objected to the clemency recommendation.
And:
However, the board's recommendation comes at a crucial time, just days after Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul E. Pfeifer told The Dispatch that all 161 Death Row cases should be reviewed. He suggested that as a result of changes in the law and societal standards, many cases would not have resulted in death sentences had they been tried today.
That is the argument made by Nields' attorneys that four members of the parole board found persuasive. They said his sentence should be commuted to life without the possibility of parole.
They pointed to a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the facts in the case "just barely get Nields over the death threshold."
The board majority also cited Pfeifer's dissent in the 2002 case.
"The type of crime Nields did is not the type of crime the General Assembly did contemplate or should have contemplated as a death penalty offense," Pfeifer wrote. "It is about alcoholism, rage and rejection and about Nields' inability to cope with any of them. It is a crime of passion imbued with pathos and reeking of alcohol."
In Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune reports, "Attorney general says Ronnie Lee Gardner unworthy of mercy." It's written by Nate Carlisle.
With Ronnie Lee Gardner's execution date a month away, the Utah Attorney General's Office is pleading with one group that has the power to stop it: the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
The board should not overturn a jury sentence, the Attorney General's Office said in a filing Tuesday.
"Gardner has not shown that he is entitled to mercy or that the Board should set aside a jury's sentence that the judiciary has found to be constitutionally sound even after twenty-five years of review," the Attorney General's Office wrote.
Gardner, 49, is scheduled to die by firing squad June 18 but wants his death sentence commuted to life with no parole. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole can decide to hold a hearing to listen further to Gardner's arguments for commutation or reject his petition on the merits. An announcement by the board is expected within days.
And:
The jury was obligated to choose a life sentence for Gardner "unless all twelve jurors found unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that death was appropriate and justified under the circumstances," the attorney general wrote.
Gardner was sentenced to death for the 1985 courthouse shooting that killed attorney Michael Burdell and wounded bailiff Nick Kirk. Burdell's friends and family have supported Gardner's commutation request and have asked to speak at his commutation hearing, while Kirk's family wants Gardner executed.
Lawyers for Gardner have argued Burdell, a pacifist who would not carry a rifle while serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, would not want Gardner executed. Gardner's lawyers also have said he should be spared because it has been too long since he committed his crimes.
The Attorney General's Office also said if the board commutes Gardner's sentence on the grounds it has been too long since his crime, that will effectively end the death penalty in Utah. The state's remaining death row inmates, the attorney general wrote, face similar delays before their executions.
Earlier coverage from Ohio and Utah at the links; related posts in the clemency index. In 2005, Texas Appleseed and the Texas Innocence Network published, "The Role of Mercy: Safegaurding Texas Justice Through Clemency Reform," which examined best practices in executive clemency. The Appendix contains comparative state information.
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