"Report includes restrictions on Ohio death penalty," is one report by AP Legal Affairs Writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins. It's via the Fremont News Messenger.
Prosecutors would need much stronger evidence against a murder defendant before bringing death penalty charges under recommendations proposed by a statewide capital punishment review committee.
The panel that spent more than two years studying changes to Ohio’s death penalty law proposes that capital charges require biological or DNA evidence or a videotaped confession.
The committee convened by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor planned to meet today to review its final report and 56 total recommendations.
Most of the proposals would need legislative approval with support uncertain in what remains a death penalty-friendly state.
The 71-page draft report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday also proposes eliminating cases where an aggravated murder was committed during a burglary, robbery or rape and banning the execution of the mentally ill.
An earlier version of the AP filing is, "Ohio committee recommends restrictions in death penalty," also by Welsh-Huggins, via the Akron Beacon Journal.
Several of the committee’s recommendations would need legislative approval, with support uncertain in what remains a death penalty-friendly state.
Among the recommendations, the report proposes:
• Pass a law banning the use of the death penalty unless prosecutors have biological or DNA evidence linking the defendant to the crime, a videotaped, voluntary confession; or a video recording that “conclusively links” the defendant to the killing.
• Ban death penalty charges where prosecutors used testimony from jailhouse snitches that was not independently verified at the time a jury is weighing the sentence.
Earlier coverage of the Ohio Study Commission begins at the link. Also available, more on the Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio's Death Penalty website.
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