Ohio Urged to Suspend Executions

Today the American Bar Association (ABA) urged Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to suspend the death penalty in the state, according to The Plain-Dealer. The ABA's Death Penalty Assessments Team found several flaws in the state's capital punishment system, including inadequate defense counsel for death row defendants, racial disparities in sentencing and a significant number of mentally ill death row inmates. As the article points out, Ohio is the seventh of eight states assessed by the ABA team; Pennsylvania is currently under assessment.

The Ohio news follows on the heels of last Wednesday's federal court ruling that found Tennessee's new lethal injection guidelines unconstitutional. Judge Aleta A. Trauger found the three-drug death cocktail would cause "a substantial risk of unnecessary pain" if the anesthetic drug is not administered properly. John Holdridge, Director of the Capital Punishment Project, commented on the ruling in a Friday AP article.