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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Social Issues

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Wrongfully incarcerated and no compensation

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If you had been incarcerated for two murders you didn’t commit and had spent nearly seven years on Death Row, you would think being compensated for the state’s error wouldn’t be that difficult, especially when the real killer later confessed. So, you would think, but Dale Johnston has been dealt one punch in the gut after another by the state of Ohio. The most recent came with an unfavorable ruling from the Franklin County Court of Appeals in June.

Johnston was ...

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Social Issues

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Death row and wrongful convictions

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For most of us, Death Row is something far away, but not so last week. I got to see something extraordinary. Six men presented their stories at the Ohio Statehouse about how they had been wrongfully incarcerated and had spent time on Ohio’s Death Row. Ricky Jackson, Kwanme Ajamu, Wiley Bridgeman, Joe D’Ambrosio, Derrick Jamison and Dale Johnston spent a combined 173 years behind bars before their convictions were overturned.

These gentlemen were at the Statehouse as part of a lobbying ...

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Death Penalty

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The General Assembly didn’t see it coming?

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They didn’t see it coming, or maybe they just didn’t care. In their haste to pass a bill that would permit compounding pharmacies to manufacture in secrecy the drugs necessary to continue Ohio’s death penalty, the state’s legislators opened up the state to more litigation.

The legislators were in a hurry.  On August 11, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost ordered a moratorium on Ohio executions until the state developed a new drug protocol. The moratorium was in response to ...

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Death Penalty

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