Criminal justice system prioritizes procedure over results

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Gov. Mike DeWine has put a hold on executions. He’s bothered that the drug protocol used by the state to execute inmates causes severe pain and mimics waterboarding. DeWine is right to be bothered, but more than anything, he should be concerned for how flawed the system is.

The Death Penalty Information Center tells us that 163 Death Row inmates nationwide, including nine Ohioans, have been exonerated since 1973. Seven of those Ohioans were exonerated in the last 16 years. ...

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18
DEC
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Death Penalty

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Why has the state fought compensating Dale Johnston?

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[This piece was published in the Columbus Dispatch on July 16, 2017, and is an update of a blog post published in August 2016]

If you believe the court system always renders justice, you’re mistaken. Just ask Dale Johnston. After spending nearly seven years on Death Row for two murders he didn’t commit, Johnston has yet to succeed in a 24-year ordeal to obtain compensation for his wrongful conviction. And the real killer is now behind bars.

Johnston was convicted in 1984 ...

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16
JUL
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Social Issues

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Wasting more effort killing killers

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Ohio has found it harder and harder to execute its death row inmates, and so the answer has been to make the process secretive. The problem began when the pharmaceutical companies, whose drugs were being used for executions, decided they didn’t like their drugs being administered on death row, so they stopped the supply line.

That left states like Ohio scrambling to come up with alternative drugs, which, in turn, led to a series of botched executions, including one in Ohio. ...

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4
OCT
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Death Penalty

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