Who suffers most from decades of appeals? Who suffers most when justice delayed becomes justice denied? The families who have become victims.
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Journalists from the USA TODAY network of newspapers in Ohio spent eight months investigating what happens in the state’s youth prisons and found that the system is riddled with problems.
Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, represents Ohio’s 3rd Senate District and is Vice Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Reynolds also serves on the Host Committee of the Midwestern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments and is Vice Chair of the Conference’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee..
Understandably, families, prosecutors, and many of my colleagues in the Ohio General Assembly believe that executions mean justice. I believe there is a better way to deliver justice and punish those who commit the most heinous crimes – by executing their freedom, not their lives.
In February 1999, Wilford Berry Jr. became the first person to be executed in Ohio since 1963. He was known as a “volunteer” because he understood that life imprisonment was a different kind of death penalty – and for him, it was far worse. Berry refused attempts by the Death Penalty Division of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office to declare him mentally incompetent to make that decision.
He wanted to be killed.
Along with several of my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, I am cosponsoring Senate Bill 101, which would end the use of the death penalty in Ohio.
A similar bill, House Bill 259, also has bipartisan support.
My strong faith and personal experiences have led me to this crossroads in the criminal justice system. I believe in the sanctity of human life. I believe that life begins in the womb and should continue naturally, blessed with life on God’s earth.
Many of my colleagues who are truly pro-life believe that only God knows when our time to die has come. Yes, the Bible is full of stories about the death penalty. The wrongful execution of Christ by the Romans redeemed us from our sins and paved our way to heaven. All part of God’s great plan.
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Wrongful executions should never be part of human plans. The criminal justice system is not a perfect system. Like us, it can have flaws, and one wrongful execution is one too many.
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:19.
The families of the victims suffer under the death penalty
I have witnessed how lives have been destroyed by crime, from the perpetrators to the victims to the families and children caught in the middle. This led me to develop the EXIT program, which operates as a licensed residential community center focused on preparing people who have completed their sentences for reintegration into society.
The lives saved from destruction are worth the effort of rehabilitation.
Not every perpetrator is a success story.
Some people go back to prison. And the worst criminals among us will stay there for the rest of their lives. An execution of their freedom.
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I understand that many prosecutors believe that the possibility of the death penalty is a valuable tool for a defendant to secure a life sentence. Yet execution dates have been postponed on numerous occasions because there has been a virtual blockade of the drugs used in lethal injection.
Who suffers most from decades of appeals? Who suffers most when justice delayed becomes justice denied? The families who have become victims.
Ohio must move forward
A life sentence without the possibility of parole is a death sentence. Closing the cell door for good can help families look forward and put behind them the lengthy legal battles that are ubiquitous in an imperfect system.
The Gospel of Matthew says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Last month in Columbus, I hosted a discussion at the Council of State Governments’ Midwestern Legislative Conference entitled “Lifelong Legislation: A Weighty Discussion of State Sentencing Laws and the Role of Policymakers in Addressing Prison and Jail Mortality.”
It was an important opportunity for my colleagues to hear about the experiences of other states that have successfully kept their populations safe and held people accountable for their actions without resorting to executions. More than half of the states represented at the conference have abolished the death penalty.
It’s time for Ohio to move forward.
Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, represents Ohio’s 3rd Senate District and is Vice Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Reynolds also serves on the Host Committee of the Midwestern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments and is Vice Chair of the Conference’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee..
