News
Task Force On Capital Punishment Considering New Rules For Attorneys
By: Associated Press
Posted on:
UPDATE 2:03 p.m. The committee reviewing Ohio's death penalty law is considering a proposal to require lawyers representing death penalty clients to extensively document the amount of time they spend on their cases.
The proposal by prosecutors being debated Thursday also would require defense attorneys to include their reasons for calling or not calling particular witnesses, and would require any inmate claiming they had bad legal assistance to include such information in their appeals.
Prosecutors are also pushing a proposal to allow currently prohibited testimony from surviving victims and family members about the impact of a killing.
Defense lawyers oppose the proposed changes.
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor has convened the task force while making clear it won't debate whether the state should have the death penalty.
A state Supreme Court task force analyzing the effectiveness of Ohio's capital punishment law plans another meeting Thursday as part of its yearlong review.
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor has convened the task force while making clear it won't debate whether the state should have the death penalty.
The committee of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and death penalty experts is looking at a variety of issues, from how the law affects minorities to the role of clemency.
The committee also is studying whether death sentences are proportional, meaning that any one death sentence is similar to others that have also been handed down.
O'Connor says the committee's goal is to produce a fair, impartial and balanced analysis of the state's 30-year-old law.