[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., DEL., W.VA., MISS., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 16



PENNSYLVANIA:

DA's office withdraws intent to seek death penalty against accused killer


The Allegheny County District Attorney's Office said today that it is 
withdrawing its intent to seek the death penalty against Theodore Smedley, who 
pleaded guilty of killing 1 man and stands accused of killing 2 others - all in 
a 4-day span in March 2014.

Smedley, 21, is already serving 20 to 40 years in prison for the March 28, 
2014, fatal shooting of Rasheed Strader. As part of a negotiated plea agreement 
before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III, Smedley 
pleaded guilty to 3rd-degree murder in Strader's death.

He also pleaded to conspiracy and illegally possessing a firearm in that case.

Mr. Strader was shot multiple times outside his mother's home about 9:30 p.m. 
on Goettman Street in Troy Hill. Assistant district attorney Stephie-Anna 
Ramaley told Judge Williams that 2 neighbors on the street witnessed the 
shooting, but Smedley told another inmate in the Allegheny County Jail, where 
he's been held since April 2014, that he would "beat this case," because he had 
made arrangements to burn the witnesses' home.

In July 2015, Ms. Ramaley said, there was a fire that was ruled arson at that 
home. Smedley's cousin was charged in that case after investigators were able 
to track a three-way call between Smedley, his brother and the cousin, she 
said.

Smedley still faces trial in the March 25, 2014, shooting deaths of Jamarow 
Trowery, 36, who had lived in Homewood, Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg, and Rashad 
Freeman, 18, of Verona.

Police said the 2 were found shot inside a black Cadillac Escalade that crashed 
into the back of a church on Kincaid Street in Garfield.

A jury trial has been set for March.

(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

***************

DA To Seek Death Penalty For Woman Accused Of Killing Son, Sending Video To 
Father


A woman accused of murdering her son and sending video of the child's lifeless 
body to the father could face the death penalty.

Thursday, District Attorney Stephen Zappala announced he will seek the death 
penalty in the trial of 21-year-old Christian Clark.

Last month, Clark waived her right to a preliminary hearing on charges 
including criminal homicide in the Nov. 1 death of 17-month-old Andre Price 
III.

Allegheny County police contend she sent a barrage of angry texts, threats, 
photos and videos that night because she believed the boy's father - Andre 
Price Jr., 23 - wasn't coming home after work so he could be with another woman 
instead.

Police say she also threatened and tried to kill the boy's 2-year-old sister, 
Angel, during her texting tirade.

In one message following the video, Clark said, "First of all she is clearly 
fine, because watch, see she is not dead. Him on the other hand, he doesn't 
budge. So you might want to call the ambulance."

Prior to sending the video, Clark sent another message which said, "They'll 
blame you for leaving them with me lol they talk about how I have issues & 
needed help & ya son wont even be remembered now that is actually sad."

Clark is being held in the Allegheny County Jail on charges of criminal 
homicide, criminal attempted homicide, aggravated assault and endangering the 
welfare of children.

(source: KDKA news)

**********

McKeesport mom charged with killing son amid angry texts facing death penalty


Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a Pennsylvania woman accused of 
killing her 17-month-old son and trying to kill her 2-year-old daughter while 
sending angry texts to their father.

A lawyer for 21-year-old Christian Clark of McKeesport had no comment on the 
decision Friday.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. says the children's ages 
contributed to the decision to seek the death penalty. Clark is heading to 
trial after waiving her right to a preliminary hearing.

Investigators say she sent a video of the boy's lifeless body to the father 
during several hours of angry texts last month.

Andre Price Jr. is charged with child endangerment for allegedly failing to 
call 911. His lawyer has said Clark made similar threats in the past without 
carrying them out.

(source: Associated Press)






DELAWARE:

Delaware Court Says Death Penalty Ruling Is Retroactive


A Delaware Supreme Court ruling earlier this year declaring the state's death 
penalty law unconstitutional is retroactive, meaning an inmate convicted of 
killing a police officer must be resentenced to life in prison, the justices 
said in a follow-up decision Thursday.

The ruling came in an appeal by Derrick Powell, who was convicted of killing 
Georgetown police officer Chad Spicer in 2009, but it likely means that 11 
other former death-row inmates also will be spared from execution.

In August, a majority of the justices said Delaware's death penalty law was 
unconstitutional because it allowed judges too much discretion in sentencing 
and did not require that a jury find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt 
that a defendant deserves execution.

That ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court said Florida's death sentencing 
law, which also gave judges the final say, was unconstitutional. Alabama is the 
only other state that allows judges to override jury decisions on whether an 
offender should get life in prison or the death penalty.

In its 15-page decision Thursday, the Delaware court said its August ruling 
invalidating the state's death penalty law was a "watershed procedural ruling" 
that must be applied retroactively.

In a 1989 ruling in "Teague v. Lane" the U.S. Supreme Court said a new rule of 
criminal procedure would not be applied retroactively unless it fell under one 
of 2 narrow exceptions: for new "substantive" rules, and for "watershed rules 
of criminal procedure" that implicate the fundamental fairness and accuracy of 
a criminal proceeding.

"The burden of proof is one of those rules that has both procedural and 
substantive ramifications," the court said Thursday.

Prior to the court's August ruling, a Delaware jury's recommendation that a 
defendant deserved the death penalty needed to be based only on "a 
preponderance of the evidence," not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

The jury in Powell's case, on a 7-to-5 vote, found by a preponderance of the 
evidence that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating factors and recommended 
a death sentence. The judge found other aggravating factors and concluded, by a 
preponderance of the evidence, that all of the aggravating factors outweighed 
the mitigating factors.

The justices noted that their decision Thursday is consistent with two prior 
opinions in which it found existing death-penalty statutes unconstitutional and 
vacated all death sentences. The first instance was in 1973, when three 
Delaware inmates had their death sentences vacated following a 1972 U.S. 
Supreme Court ruling. The 2nd occurred after another U.S. Supreme Court ruling 
in 1976, when nine Delaware inmates facing execution had their death sentences 
vacated.

Earlier this year, prison officials quietly disbanded Delaware's death row and 
moved its former occupants to other housing.

Prison officials say the move, in August, resulted in former death-row inmates 
having 5 times more recreational time than they had before, and in some cases, 
sharing cells with other inmates who are not facing the death penalty.

Officials said the move comes amid evolving standards for treatment of inmates 
in restrictive housing settings and would help the Department of Correction 
keep its American Correctional Association accreditation.

(source: Associated Press)






WEST VIRGINIA:

Last Public Hanging in West Virginia: December 16, 1897


The rowdy scene prompted West Virginia lawmakers to take action. A little more 
than a year later, Governor George W. Atkinson signed a law that banned public 
executions, making West Virginia was one of the first states to do so.

On December 16, 1897, John F. Morgan was hanged in Ripley for the murder of 
Chloe Greene and 2 of her sons. It was the last public execution in West 
Virginia history.

Some 5,000 spectators poured into the Jackson County seat. Many were drunk, and 
some even sold souvenirs. The rowdy scene prompted West Virginia lawmakers to 
take action.

A little more than a year later, Governor George W. Atkinson signed a law that 
banned public executions, making West Virginia was one of the first states to 
do so. As an alternative, over the next 60 years, 94 men would be executed 
inside the walls of the state penitentiary in Moundsville.

By the mid-20th century, public opinion about the death penalty was shifting. A 
number of states had already banned the practice. In 1965, the legislature 
passed and Governor Hulett Smith signed a bill ending capital punishment in 
West Virginia. Today, West Virginia is one of only 18 states that does not 
impose death sentences.

(source: wvpublic.org)






MISSISSIPPI:

Death row inmate wins right to challenge execution drugs


A Mississippi death row inmate will get to challenge the state's use of an 
execution drug that's been blamed for problems in other states.

The Mississippi Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision Thursday, said Charles Ray 
Crawford can question the use of midazolam in state court.

Lawyers for Crawford say the sedative will not make an inmate unconscious, 
meaning he could feel pain as executioners administer a 2nd drug to paralyze 
him and a 3rd drug to stop his hear.

Lawyers for an inmate in Alabama said his movements during an execution last 
week proved he was never properly anesthetized.

Mississippi has not executed anyone since 2012.The state Supreme Court has 
avoided setting execution dates during challenges to exectuion methods.

(source: WCBI news)






OHIO:

Ohio's youngest death row inmate never touched the murder weapon. Why was he 
sentenced to death?


The plan was to rob Justin Back's place and kill him.

Austin Myers would distract him, giving Timothy Mosley an opening to choke Back 
with a garrote made out of 2 handles and a wire cable.

Then, the 2 19-year-olds would dump Back's body and douse it with septic 
enzymes so that it would decompose faster.

Almost everything went according to plan. Almost.

In January 2014, court records say, Myers and Mosley showed up at Back's home 
in rural Waynesville, Ohio, under a false pretense that they wanted to hang out 
and watch movies with the 18-year-old. Myers lured Back into the kitchen as 
Mosley came up from behind. But the garrote ended up across Back's chin, and 
not his neck.

Back tried to escape, and all 3 teens ended up fighting on the kitchen floor.

Panicking, Mosley improvised. He pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed Back 21 
times.

As the knife pierced his skin and flesh, Back begged Myers for help. Back 
didn't know Mosley, but he'd known Myers since they were in middle school.

"Relax; it will be over soon," Myers told Back, according to testimony.

Back died of blood loss, court records say. His assailants cleaned up the crime 
scene, wrapped Back's body in a blanket and dumped it in a wooded area in a 
neighboring county.

There, Myers fired 2 rounds into Back's corpse before pouring the septic 
enzymes.

Mosley and Myers were eventually convicted in the death.

Both had hatched an elaborate plan to rob and kill Back. But their fates took 
opposite turns.

Mosley, the one who used the garrote and knife on Back, is in prison for life.

Myers, who ignored Back's pleas for help but didn't strike the fatal blow, has 
been sentenced to die.

The disparity in the punishments for the 2 men was the result of their own 
legal decisions.

Mosley struck a plea deal that spared him from a death sentence.

Myers decided to go to trial and was convicted. His death sentence is now the 
subject of an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, which could hear it next year.

The state's justices must decide whether Myers should have received the same 
punishment as Mosley, or whether he was more culpable and deserving of the 
harshest punishment of all - even if he did not strike the fatal blow.

His appellate attorney, Timothy McKenna, said Myers's sentence should be 
reduced to life without parole.

"The state is arguing that both defendants planned the murder, both are equally 
culpable," McKenna said. "If you believe that, then why is our client getting 
the death penalty and the other guy is getting life without parole?"

But Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said that if anybody deserved any 
degree of mercy, it wasn't Myers but Mosley. He'd been cooperative, even 
pointing investigators to evidence that incriminated not only Myers, but also 
himself. Although Mosley was the attacker, the idea to kill Back came from 
Myers, Fornshell said.

He added that there was never any indication that Myers, who was caught on a 
store surveillance video buying the garrote and whose fingerprints were found 
on it, intended to plead guilty.

Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, 
said the case presents a problematic scenario in which the punishment is based 
not on the level of culpability but on who decides to cooperate.

"It's crystal clear that the difference between life or death is electing a 
jury trial, not what happened at the crime scene," said Zimring, who has 
written about capital punishment. "The thing that makes that forcefully 
problematic is that the only difference between life and death is the 
procedural decision that the defendant made."

But Warren County Common Pleas Court Judge Donald Oda II said in court records 
that Myers is more culpable because Mosley would not have had any reason to 
hurt Back if it weren???t for Myers, who'd known Back since middle school.

"Myers was the brains, but Mosley was the weapon that he used. He came up with 
all the plans to do it," said Back's stepfather, Mark Cates. "He chose to get 
Mosley to help him. He chose Justin."

Looking back, Mark Cates says he wishes Myers and Mosley had made other choices 
on the afternoon of Jan. 28, 2014.

They could have waited a couple more weeks to rob, and no one would have been 
home. Back would have left to join the Navy, and Cates and his wife would have 
been at work.

But the teens - specifically Myers - chose to rob the Cates house, knowing that 
there was a safe inside and knowing that Back would be home.

"He had a choice; Justin didn't have a choice," Sandy Cates, Back's mother, 
said of Myers. "He could have stopped it. He could have called 911. He could 
have stepped in. He could have helped save Justin, but he didn't. Again, that 
was his choice."

And for that, Back's parents believe Myers should die.

As for Mosley, they believe he earned the right to keep his life after he 
showed remorse.

"He did own up to what he did," Sandy Cates said. "That's the difference."

Although Oda, the judge, called the plea agreement with Mosley "troublesome," 
he wrote that Myers "does not escape culpability just because Mosley cannot be 
put to death for his crimes." Fornshell said the plea deal was a risk that 
prosecutors were willing to take and believes it was the "best strategic 
decision."

"Because we believe strongly that Tim [Mosley] providing that information 
helped the jury better understand what the whole case was about, what Tim's 
role was and what Austin's role was," Fornshell said.

McKenna, Myers's attorney, said that in cases involving plea deals, the less 
problematic defendant is usually the one who testifies against the more 
blameworthy one.

He argues that in this case, the level of culpability is the same.

Myers had just turned 19 at the time of the murder. Mosley was also 19.

Justin Back (left) is pictured with his stepfather, Mark Cates; his brother, 
Jacob Back; and his mother, Sandy Cates. (Mark and Sandy Cates)

"Teens' brain simply aren't developed enough to understand what's happening to 
them to get the death penalty," McKenna said.

Oda agreed, citing statements that Myers made to the jury:

"If you kill me, it won't fix anything." "It won't bother."

"It won't hurt me."

"I won't feel anything."

Those are the words of a child, the judge wrote.

>From skate parks to midtown, Ryan Parrilla captures the energy of the city that 
never stops moving.

"The defendant does not understand how precious life is - at his age, it would 
be virtually impossible for him to have such an appreciation."

Executions of people who did not directly kill the victim are extremely rare.

The Death Penalty Information Center lists just 10 such instances that didn't 
involve contract killings. An additional 11 involve contract killings, in which 
the person who was executed had contracted to have the victim killed.

None of those executions were in Ohio, which has executed 53 people since 1976.

If executed, Myers would be the youngest defendant to be put to death in the 
state.

For Mark and Sandy Cates, justice was served when Myers was sentenced to death 
- and efforts to reverse that sentence only brings them back to the worst 
moment of their lives.

"We need closure," Sandy Cates said. "Every time there's an appeal, every time 
there's something legal coming up, literally, it tears your heart out."

"We've lost Justin over and over and over and over," she added. "And we're 
never going to have any closure until all appeals are done. We need it to be 
over at some point."

*********************

Court upholds death sentence of Akron man who killed woman, boyfriend; left 
another paralyzed in 2011


The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of 
killing the mother of his 2 children and her boyfriend.

The court ruled 6-1 Thursday to reject arguments raised by attorneys for Dawud 
El Spaulding of Akron.

He was sentenced to death for the killings of 28-year-old Erica Singleton and 
31-year-old Ernest Thomas outside Singleton's Akron home in December 2011. 
Court records show a judge had granted Singleton a protection order against 
Spaulding at the time. Prosecutors said Spaulding stalked and terrorized 
Singleton before killing her.

Spaulding also was convicted in a related shooting hours earlier that left 
Thomas' nephew paralyzed.

Spaulding's appeal argued he should have had separate trials for the slayings 
and for shooting the nephew.

A dissent by Justice William O'Neill said Spaulding deserved new separate 
trials.

Summit County Prosecutor Sherry Bevan Walsh applauded the Supreme Court's 
decision.

"Dawud Spaulding stalked, terrorized, and attacked Erica before he killed her. 
This was a brutal, calculated shooting spree that left 2 people dead and a 3rd 
near death," Walsh said. "This case illustrates the seriousness of domestic 
violence."

Spaulding was convicted in 2012.

According to reports, Spaulding killed Singleton the day after he skipped a 
court hearing about the protection order. Her mother said she spoke to 
Singleton that morning and that she was supposed to stop by, but never did. She 
said she got a call from Spaulding that day asking if Singleton ever arrived, 
to which he laughed.

Singleton was discovered holding luggage and a purse, and Thomas was found next 
to his running car.

(source: Akron Beacon Journal)

*****************

Ohio Death Penalty Executions Starting Up Again in 2017 ---- Butler County man 
is scheduled 6th in 2017 for lethal injection, as state ends 3-year pause in 
capital punishment.


When the state of Ohio resumes executions next month, Donald Ketterer will be 
6th in line.

Ketterer, 67, is now one of 26 Ohio death row inmates with a scheduled 
execution date through 2019 -- and the only one from Butler County. Convicted 
of murdering 85-year-old Lawrence Sanders in 2003, Ketterer's execution is set 
for May 17, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Whether the state will actually meet that deadline is a matter of debate, 
however.

The Butler County prosecutor's office, which handled the original case against 
Ketterer, notes that execution dates are often extended.

Ketterer's court-appointed public defender, along with a group at the forefront 
of fighting against the death penalty in Ohio, believes he could be spared on 
mental health grounds.

As Ohio ends a 3-year moratorium on capital punishment, Donald Ketterer sits in 
a 1-man cell awaiting his fate. If his date sticks, he'll be moved -- from 
either Chillicothe or Toledo, since the state is in the process of moving death 
row inmates from the first to the 2nd site -- to what's called the Death House 
in Lucasville. Barring delays, at 10 a.m. on the 3rd Wednesday in May, he will 
die by lethal injection.

Ketterer did not respond to requests for comment, sent through a state-run 
email system.

Ketterer's case

In the late afternoon on Feb. 24, 2003, Donald Ketterer, then 53, beat and 
stabbed to death his former employer, Lawrence Sanders.

According to court documents in the case, Ketterer had gone to Sanders' home in 
Hamilton, Ohio, to borrow money. When Sanders said he did not have the money, 
Ketterer struck him in the head with an iron skillet and stabbed him with a 
pair of scissors and a knife. Then Ketterer robbed Sanders' home and stole his 
car.

Ketterer had known Sanders since he was 9 years old. For years, Ketterer helped 
Sanders shovel snow, do yard work and paint, according to neighbors.

In 2006, clinical psychologist Dr. Bobbie Hopes evaluated and tested Ketterer 
to determine his competency. She found that he had a personality disorder with 
antisocial and borderline traits, and an extensive history of suicide attempts 
and gestures. His family also had a long history of mental illness and suicide 
attempts.

Hopes testified in State v. Ketterer, that Ketterer developed rheumatic fever 
and was frequently hospitalized in his first 12 years. His father physically 
abused him. Ketterer did poorly in school, eventually dropping out of high 
school.

Ketterer joined the Army in 1979 and was honorably discharged three years 
later. Two years later, he was sentenced to a 3-year prison sentence for armed 
robbery. For next 20 years, Ketterer worked as a house painter.

Appeals now underway

In the Sanders case, Ketterer pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, aggravated 
robbery, grand theft of a motor vehicle and burglary. In 2004, a 3-judge panel 
sentenced Ketterer to death.

His case has been in and out of various courts at the state and federal level 
since then. In 2007, he filed a motion, ultimately unsuccessful, to withdraw 
his guilty plea. He's also been appealing his original conviction, which is 
common in death penalty cases.

This summer, on July 22, the Butler County Common Pleas Court denied Ketterer's 
appeal, originally sought in 2002. The court denied the appeal again on Nov. 
15.

In between, on Sept. 1, the Ohio Supreme Court granted Ketterer's "motion to 
stay"-- essentially suspending his execution -- "until he has exhausted his 
post-conviction remedies."

Lina Alkamhawi, an assistant Butler County prosecutor, believes Ketterer will 
eventually be executed. "Based on the Supreme Court of Ohio's 3 prior decisions 
affirming Donald Ketterer's convictions and death sentence, I expect his 
convictions and sentence will be upheld," she said.

But she is not at all certain he will face the death penalty in 6 months time.

"From experience, I know of a case that was shelved for more than a decade," 
she said. "I am uncertain as to why a date is set knowing that the execution is 
not likely to occur."

The 3-year hiatus

In January 2014, Ohio executed Dennis McGuire with an experimental 2-drug 
combination.

Prior to McGuire's execution, Ohio ran out of supplies for lethal injections. 
Like other states, Ohio then sought to import chemicals from European 
companies. However, most pharmaceutical manufacturers deemed their drugs 
off-limits for capital punishment purposes.

Because of this shortage, the state tried, for the 1st and only time, to use 2 
drugs commonly found in hospitals: midazolam and hydromorphone.

It took McGuire 26 minutes to die after the drugs were administered. Witnesses 
say McGuire struggled against his restraints, gasped, choked and clenched his 
fists.

McGuire's execution was the longest in Ohio???s recent history. A moratorium on 
executions followed immediately.

In late 2014, state lawmakers passed a law that encouraged local, compounding 
pharmacies to make lethal-injection drugs for the state of Ohio. However, none 
were willing.

Then, Ohio's prison agency attempted to buy drugs from overseas only to be 
waylaid by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as sodium thiopental is not an 
FDA-approved drug for executions.

Now, 3 years after its last execution, Ohio plans to resume capital punishment 
with a new 3-drug combination - midazolam, rocuronium and potassium chloride - 
that requires the state to adopt a new execution protocol.

Rocuronium bromide, a paralytic agent, has never been used to carry out the 
death penalty in Ohio. Midazolam and potassium chloride, however, have been 
used in a particularly gruesome Oklahoma execution, in which the inmate died 
from a heart attack 40 minutes after receiving the drug mix.

The 1st test of the new protocol could come Jan. 12 when Ronald Phillips is 
scheduled for execution. He filed a suit in federal court in October, claiming 
the state would violate his constitutional rights to avoid "cruel and unusual 
punishment" in using the new 3-drug regimen.

Prison life

As of June of this year, Ohio had 137 death row inmates. There are only 6 other 
states that have more people on death row: California, Florida, Texas, Alabama, 
Pennsylvania and North Carolina in that order.

There have been 156 inmates exonerated in the United States since 1973, which 
is approximately 5 per year. Exonerated prisoners are considered innocent and 
wrongfully convicted.

Ohio has exonerated 9 death row inmates. One of these men, Joe D'Ambrosio, was 
held prisoner for 22 years. "Prison was monotonous. It was like Pavlov's dog. 
Ring a bell, time to eat. Ring a bell, time to stop. It was day after day after 
day of the same thing over and over again. You've got 10 minutes to eat, then 
shower time, then recreation time, over and over again," D'Ambrosio said in a 
phone interview from his home in the Cleveland area.

Accused of murdering an adolescent boy, D'Ambrosio also spent a large portion 
of his time learning the law so that he could get himself a re-trial.

Now D'Ambrosio is working for the priest who helped free him. As a jack of all 
trades, he does odd jobs and maintenance tasks at a Catholic parish. His story 
was featured as on CNN's "Death Row Stories," which is available on Netflix. 
Another death row survivor, Kwame Ajamu, can relate to the monotony of prison 
life. "I would get up, do my workout - I did a lot of boxing - and then I would 
go to work, which consisted of going to school at the education department from 
7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Then we would come in because everything closed. Then I would 
read or play games in the gym because that's all we had."

Ajamu was incarcerated when he was 17 in 1975 and wasn't freed and dismissed of 
all charges until he was almost 45. He was arrested with his brother and best 
friend on allegations that he murdered a salesman in Cleveland.

A key witness recanted his testimony decades after the conviction, resulting in 
the eventual exoneration of the three death row inmates. Ajamu's best friend 
became the longest-held prisoner to be cleared of his crime in U.S. history, 
serving 39 years in prison.

'Grim, despicable place'

"Prison is a remote, grim and despicable place in terms of having emotional 
gatherings. It's almost impossible to make close connection. It was sad and 
mostly lonely. At one point, I was living among 3,600 people, but I had no one 
that I could relate to, that I could talk to," Ajamu said by phone from his 
Cleveland home.

Ajamu is an active board member of The Witness to Innocence, an organization 
run by former death row exonerees. He also works closely with Ohioans to Stop 
Executions (OTSE).

D'Ambrosio said he eventually got used to living with an execution date because 
the date got pushed back repeatedly during the appeals process. His 1st date 
was exactly 2 years after the murder he was accused of, so that the victim and 
his alleged perpetrator would die on the same date, he said.

Freed in 2012, D'Ambrosio is still astonished at how events played out.

"When you're exonerated, all they do is open the door and kick you out," 
D'Ambrosio says. "There's no program for an exoneree in the United States. They 
hope that you mess up again, sending you out into the world with nothing. 
Absolutely nothing."

Mental health reform

Over the years, physicians and psychologists diagnosed Donald Ketterer as 
suffering from alcohol dependency, polysubstance dependency, chronic 
depression, major depressive disorders and bipolar disorder, according to the 
2006 report from the Common Pleas Court of Butler County. At the time of his 
crime, he was impaired by a "crack-cocaine binge," according to his appeal.

In 2003, Ketterer's brother Tom said Donald was "addicted to cocaine, abused 
alcohol and suffered from bipolar disorder. He was never really violent though 
- I've never seen him in a fight with anyone," according to an article 
published in The Cincinnati Enquirer.

His appeal also characterized him as illiterate with "intelligence that falls 
in the intellectually disability range."

Over the past 30 years, the number of people on death row with mental illness 
and other disabilities has steadily increased, according to the National Mental 
Health Association.

"I believe that the time has come to reexamine whether we, as a society, should 
administer the death penalty to a person with a serious mental illness," former 
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton wrote in a 2006 filing 
related to Ketterer's case.

At least some members of the Ohio Legislature are asking the same question.

Bill moves forward

In May of 2015, Sens. Bill Seitz and Sandra R. Williams put forth a bill 
calling for a ban on executions of inmates proven to be mentally ill at the 
time of their crime. The Ohio Senate Criminal Justice Committee passed SB162, 
on a 9-1 vote, in November. It's unknown whether the measure, if enacted, would 
apply retroactively, said Abe Bonowitz, head of communications for OTSE.

But Ketterer's mental health -- and the court record establishing his early 
history with mental health struggles -- will be pivotal in the months ahead.

"Mental health issues are going to be a big part of the conversation around 
Ketterer's case," said his state-appointed public defender Randall Porter.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), the American 
Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National 
Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the American Bar Association have all 
endorsed resolutions calling for the severely mentally ill to be exempted from 
the death penalty.

Porter, meanwhile, is working on his appeal, which he believes could ultimately 
reach the U.S. Supreme Court. That process can take as long as seven years, he 
said.

Looking forward

Executions across the country are in decline, according to the DPIC. The year 
2015 -- with 28 executions -- marked the lowest number in 25 years. The number 
sits at 20 for 2016, down from a high of 98 in 1999. 31 states still practice 
the death penalty, DPIC data shows.

States are moving away from the death penalty because it is costly and 
problematic. Among the biggest problems: it is applied unevenly and sometimes 
incorrectly, with race, geography and economic issues at play. Finding drugs 
for lethal injection is among the most recent complications.

And Americans increasingly favor life without parole to death penalty, polls 
show.

"The only reason they had the death penalty before was to make society safe, 
and that was the only way to keep you out of the system. It's cheaper to put 
someone in jail for the rest of their life than to execute them because of 
mandatory appeals," D'Ambrosio said.

(source: MARIEL PADILLA, Miami University journalism student ---- patch.com)