The prosecutor in Ohio’s most-populous county isn’t limiting his review of capital punishment to the case of a man scheduled to die next month for fatally stabbing a woman 17 times.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty also will examine the death sentences of three other inmates set for execution this year or next.
McGinty, who promised to reduce the number of capital indictments when running for election last year, also will look at the county’s other 18 Death Row inmates as they receive execution dates. Those include 15 prisoners sentenced to die before life without parole was an option in the state, beginning in 1996.
Anyone sentenced before then will be looked at differently, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Matthew Meyer said on Friday. In addition, the “heinousness” of a killing now plays an important role in McGinty’s approach to capital punishment, Meyer said.
“The office is very much interested in pursuing capital cases as an exception and not as the rule,” Meyer said.
A slightly different version of the article is, "Cleveland prosecutor plans review of all county death penalty cases under new approach," via the Washington Post.
McGinty has made the rare move of asking the Ohio Parole Board to recommend mercy for Billy Slagle, set to die next month for the 1987 killing of his neighbor, Mari Anne Pope, while two children she was watching were home.
McGinty argues it would be difficult to get a death sentence today in the case of Slagle because of his age at the time — 18, the minimum age for execution in Ohio — and because of a long history of drug and alcohol addiction.
Earlier coverage of the Billy Slagle case begins at the link. The Ohio Parole Board is expected to announce its clemency recommendation tomorrow.
Comments