In Ohio

"Deters challenges Supreme Court justice on death penalty," is by Dan Horn for the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters called on Friday for Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer to stop deciding death penalty cases because of the justice’s recent public criticism of capital punishment.

Deters, a staunch death penalty supporter, also blasted Pfeifer for suggesting Hamilton County too often seeks the death penalty in murder cases.

“Justice Pfeifer’s continued participation in deciding death penalty cases is inappropriate,” Deters said in a letter sent Friday to judges and fellow prosecutors across the state. “It gives rise to a credible inference that he cannot be fair to both sides.”

The letter is the latest volley in an intensifying debate between Pfeifer and Deters over the future of capital punishment in Ohio.

Pfeifer, a Republican who helped write Ohio’s death penalty law as a state legislator in 1981, voiced his concerns during a House committee hearing in December and has singled out Deters in subsequent remarks to the media.

And:

Pfeifer said Friday his comments were not meant as a criticism of Deters, but rather to point out the uneven use of the death penalty around the state. Hamilton County leads the state with 28 inmates on death row – 19 percent of Ohio’s 148 condemned prisoners. Franklin County, with a larger population, has 11 death row inmates.

Pfeifer said prosecutors’ different attitudes and approaches to the death penalty mean convicted killers are more likely to get a death sentence in some counties than in others.

Deters' letter is available via the Enquirer.

The AP report is, "Lawyer questions Ohio justice's ability to be fair," via the Canton Repository.

A prosecutor in Cincinnati is calling on an Ohio Supreme Court justice who recently criticized the state's death penalty law to sit out decisions on all cases involving capital punishment.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters on Friday sent a letter to judges and prosecutors across the state questioning Justice Paul Pfeifer's ability to be fair, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

"Justice Pfeifer's continued participation in deciding death penalty cases is inappropriate," he wrote. "It gives rise to a credible inference that he cannot be fair to both sides."

Pfeifer, a Republican, helped write Ohio's death penalty law as a state legislator in 1981 but recently has said it isn't working. In December, he told a House committee the law should be scrapped.

He said he'll continue to follow current state law, but that judges are permitted to suggest changes.

"I know the difference between advocating for a change in the law and applying the law as it exists," he said.

Urging the House Criminal Justice Committee to approve a bill that would overturn the current law, Pfeifer on Dec. 14 said capital punishment was meant for the worst offenders but has been used more haphazardly over time.

"The statute does not work the way we expected," Pfeifer had testified. "What has enfolded is an application that is hit or miss depending on where you commit the crime and the attitude of the prosecutor in that county."

Earlier coverage of Justice Pfeifer's calls for a systematic review of existing death sentences and repeal begins at the link.