[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., PENN., N.C., LA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

August 1


TEXAS----new execution date

Police officer's killer gets execution date


A 60-year-old man on death row for killing a Houston police officer more than 
30 years ago has received an execution date.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Tuesday that a judge has 
signed an order setting Robert Jennings for lethal injection on Jan. 30 in 
Huntsville.

Jennings faces execution for fatally shooting Elston Howard, a Houston Police 
vice officer, at an adult bookstore in Houston in July 1988.

Jennings was on parole at the time of the killing after serving 10 years of a 
30-year sentence for robbery.

Wintesses said the officer was arresting a bookstore clerk for showing movies 
without a license when Jennings walked in and opened fire.

Jennings' attorneys have questioned whther jury instructions during the 
punishment phase of his trial were proper.

(source: Associated Press)

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

With pretrial set, death penalty still on the table for suspect in hotel clerk 
killing


1 of the defendants facing murder charges in the death of a local hotel clerk 
received a pretrial date Tuesday.

First Assistant Grayson County District Attorney Kerye Ashmore said Tuesday 
that the case against Reginald Campbell is set for pretrial on Sept. 19. 
Ashmore said all penalty options for the charges are still on the table 
including the death penalty.

Court records show that Jim Fallon, judge of the 15th state district court, 
denied Campbell's request for a new attorney Tuesday. Campbell is represented 
in the case by Susan Anderson who could not be immediately reached for comment 
on the judge's decision.

Campbell has pleaded not guilty to charges of capital murder in the course of a 
felony, murder and aggravated robbery in the death of Brandon Hubert, 32, who 
was found unresponsive at Quality Suites in Sherman on Aug. 11,2017.

In the following days, the department released few details on the investigation 
but did circulate photos on social media of a woman who was wanted for 
questioning in connection with the case. Sherman Police said the woman in the 
photo turned out to be Karalyn Marie Cross and the break led to the 
identification of Nikeya Grant and Campbell as suspects.

On Aug. 18, the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas issued a federal 
warrant for Campbell's arrest for an unlawful flight charge and on Aug. 23, law 
enforcement officers encountered Campbell near Columbia, South Carolina. 
Information released to the press at that time said that Campbell resisted and 
assaulted the officers, which resulted in him escaping.

He was taken into custody in Mount Vernon, New York, in mid-October. Campbell 
was located at an apartment complex there, and was apprehended by U.S. Marshals 
and officers of the Mount Vernon and Yonkers police departments. Sherman Police 
Department Chief Zachary Flores said at the time that the Texas Rangers and the 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also assisted in the investigation.

(source: Herald Democrat)






MASSACHUSETTS:

Death penalty does not belong in Massachusetts


Gov. Charlie Baker recently called for the death penalty to be imposed on 
convicted cop killers. This statement came after the death of Sean Gannon, a 
Yarmouth K-9 officer who was fatally shot in the head while serving an arrest 
warrant.

Baker supports the death penalty' for cop killers in Mass.

The killing of a Massachusetts police officer has some Republicans calling for 
the reinstatement of the death penalty for the murder of law enforcement 
officers.

As statistics indicate, the death penalty is not a deterrent, does not work, 
and too many innocent people have been placed on death row only to be later 
found innocent on the crime in which they were accused.

Furthermore, one person's life is not more valuable that the next person's life 
due to their chosen profession. Massachusetts need not be grouped in the same 
category as execution-prone states like Texas and Florida.

Stephen Crooker, Westfield

(source: Letter to the Editor, masslive.com)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Pennsylvania state commission scrutinizes flaws in death penalty


In late June, the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital 
Punishment issued a critical report detailing the issues surrounding capital 
punishment in the state. The 270-page report, released June 25, outlined 
numerous recommendations to address flaws the commission saw, ultimately 
leading the committee to call the death penalty "unnecessary."

The report comes nearly seven years after the Pennsylvania State Senate ordered 
a review of the death penalty in 2011. 4 years later, current Gov. Tom Wolf 
issued a moratorium on the death penalty until he saw the results of this 
commission.

The state itself has only seen 3 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1976, with the last one occurring in 1999. All 
3 executed inmates, who had "psychiatric problems," according to the 
commission's report, waived their appeals. In that same period, 6 inmates were 
exonerated.

As of July 2, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections lists 148 inmates 
sitting on death row.

The bipartisan committee that released the report represented a wide group of 
experts including scholars, members of the police force, social workers, public 
defenders and religious leaders.

The report also represented the many issues surrounding the death penalty. It 
is broken down into 17 lengthy and data-driven subsections:

Cost;

Bias and unfairness in capital trials;

Proportionality regarding the nature of the crime;

Impact on and services for family members;

Death row inmates with intellectual disabilities;

Death row inmates with mental illness;

Juries;

State appeals and post-conviction procedures;

Clemency;

"Penological intent such as public safety or deterrence";

Innocence;

Alternatives to capital punishment;

Legal counsel for defendants;

Secondary trauma to those involved in a death penalty case;

Length and conditions of confinement on death row;

Lethal injection;

Public opinion.

While the report itself is long, it's clear within the first 20 pages what 
conclusion the commission came to on the death penalty.

"Because the severely punitive alternative of life imprisonment without parole 
is available, the subcommittee on policy concludes that the death penalty is 
unnecessary, given the many objections to its use, the number of innocent 
persons wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, and the effectiveness of 
the alternative," the commission wrote.

Additionally, when studying whether capital punishment is in any way "unfair, 
arbitrary, or discriminatory," the report found evidence suggesting significant 
bias. The report discovered differences in sentencing based on the county where 
the crime occurred, the race of the victim, and the type of legal 
representation the defendant received.

The report is not legally binding, and also not the first state commission to 
offer up similar concerns. The Pennsylvania commission offered a variety of 
recommendations should the state choose to continue sentencing people to death.

One of the major suggestions was to create a "guilty but mentally ill" plea 
that would be determined during the pretrial stage, while also screening for 
intellectual disabilities. While it is unconstitutional to execute a person who 
is intellectually disabled or mentally ill, the report found that as many as 14 
percent of inmates currently on death row would be considered intellectually 
disabled and a quarter of them having "an active mental disorder," with many 
more needing mental health treatment.

Another major recommendation was to create a state-funded capital defenders 
office that would represent defendants in all phases of capital cases, 
including trial, appellate and state post-conviction stages. This suggestion 
comes after finding, "as of May 2018, 150 Pennsylvania death-row inmates ... 
have had their convictions or sentences overturned on the basis of ineffective 
assistance of counsel. Death sentences in 93 of these cases were overturned 
because of counsel's failure to investigate and present mitigating evidence in 
the penalty phase."

"Pennsylvania is the only state that contributes nothing for indigent defense," 
Matthew Mangino, a member of the task force, wrote in The Legal Intelligencer. 
"All public defender services are funded locally with counties carrying the 
full burden of indigent defense costs."

The committee also recommended reducing the state's 18 instances of aggravating 
circumstances and demystifying the entire process surrounding the state's 
lethal injection protocol. The commission acknowledged that it couldn't be sure 
that the process was constitutional, as the state is allowed to conceal its 
lethal injection process.

In a press release, the national network Conservatives Concerned About the 
Death Penalty said it agreed with the many recommendations put forth in the 
report. The group applauded the report for addressing the "many areas of 
concern to growing numbers of conservatives, including its high cost, 
unfairness, and discriminatory nature."

"This report, like many before it in Pennsylvania and around the country, 
recognizes many of those problems [surrounding the death penalty]," Heather 
Beaudoin, national coordinator of Conservatives Concerned About the Death 
Penalty, said in the press release.

"Anything less than a full implementation of the report's recommendations 
represents a willingness to carry out executions regardless the system's 
significant flaws and the high possibility of error."

The release of the report comes at a pivotal time in Pennsylvania.

On the same day the report was released, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry 
Krasner faced criticism after his office chose to forgo the death penalty - 
instead offering a plea deal of life in prison for the two men who killed 
Philadelphia Police Sgt. Robert Wilson III in 2015.

In social media posts, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 
accused Krasner of being unsupportive of Wilson's family. Krasner responded to 
the criticism by saying the family was split on the issue.

Krasner's "never" stance on the death penalty was a large focus of his campaign 
to become Philadelphia's district attorney in 2017, although since being sworn 
in, he has walked back on some of that surety.

In an interview following his swearing-in, Krasner reiterated his personal 
belief against the death penalty but acknowledged that "you never want to say 
never" in regards to capital punishment sentencing.

Krasner said the decisions of the district attorney office's homicide 
sentencing committee, along with his decisions, "are going to be informed by 
the fact that the death penalty is never imposed in Pennsylvania."

The release also comes during Wolf's re-election campaign against 
pro-death-penalty Republican candidate Scott Wagner, who has spoken out against 
Wolf's moratorium and would lift it, should he be elected in November.

In response to the plea deal Krasner's office offered, Wagner wrote on his 
campaign website, "I also know that our Governor, Tom Wolf, has put a 
moratorium on the death penalty and opposes the death penalty for cop killers, 
school shooters, and drug dealers. You can be assured that his moratorium will 
end when I take office in January of 2019."

(source:Kristen Whitney Daniels is assistant director of the U.S. Federation of 
the Sisters of St. Joseph and a former NCR Bertelsen intern----National 
Catholic Reporter)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty sought in slaying of pregnant Southern Lee High student


Moore County prosecutors said Tuesday that they plan to seek the death penalty 
against a Rockingham teen charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend. Brian 
Lovon Little, 18, is charged with 1st-degree murder and murder of an unborn 
child in the April 8 shooting death of 18-year-old Aiyonna Clarice Barrett.

Barrett, who family members said was pregnant with Little's child, was found 
shot to death inside a car on a dirt road near South Gaines Street in Southern 
Pines.

Barrett's mother, Ebony Gomez, said Little didn't want the baby, so he shot 
Barrett in the back of the head.

Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said there are "multiple 
aggravating factors" in the case that support her pursuit of the death penalty.

Gomez said seeing Little in court Tuesday brought back the hurt she felt after 
her daughter's death.

"I had to see my grandchild for the first time in a casket. Nobody should have 
to deal with that," Gomez said. "You plan birthday parties for your 
grandchildren and your children. You don't plan for, 'What tombstone am I going 
to get?'"

Barrett previously lived in Rockingham but transferred to Southern Lee High 
School in Sanford to finish her senior year. Gomez said she went to the 
school's graduation ceremony and saw an empty chair where Barrett would have 
sat.

Gomez said she can't sleep and has lost 30 pounds since her daughter was 
killed. She wore a T-shirt with Barrett's picture on it in court Tuesday so she 
could look Little in the eye.

"When he saw me, it was almost like he was shocked," she said. "[There was] 
shame at the same time, and he put his head down - but he would still look."

Before his arrest, Gomez said, Little went to her home and tried to comfort 
her.

"I want you to have to be able to look me in my face again," she said, 
describing her thoughts at seeing Little. "I want you to see the pain and the 
hurt that you have caused me, not just me, but family period."

While Gomez supports the decision to seek the death penalty, she said she 
doesn't think executing Little will bring her closure.

"As the Bible says, an eye for an eye, but it will never replace my baby," she 
said.

Little remains in the Moore County jail without bond.

The last time a Moore County jury sent a man to death row was 2007. Mario 
Phillips was convicted of murder in a quadruple homicide near Carthage in 
December 2003. Four people were stabbed and shot during a robbery, and a 
teenager who survived identified Phillips as the gunman.

(source: WRAL news)




LOUISIANA:

Are the gas chamber, electric chair, gallows in Louisiana's future?


Are Louisiana lawmakers ready to bring back the gas chamber, hanging, firing 
squad or electrocution as options for carrying out the state's death penalty?

Attorney General Jeff Landry says he will push for those changes if Louisiana 
can't figure out how to get its lethal injection protocols back on track. 
Executions in the state are on hold and will be for at least another year as 
part of a legal battle and efforts to find a drug manufacturer or pharmacy that 
will sell them the products needed to carry out executions. Louisiana hasn't 
put a prisoner to death since 2010 when Gerald Bordelon waived all his rights 
to appeal.

Landry has accused Gov. John Bel Edwards of dragging his feet on the speed of 
executions, noting that other states have managed to put bodies on the gurneys, 
noting that Texas has carried out 7 executions in the first 6 months of this 
year and that Arkansas had managed 2 in just 1 day.

While avoiding a direct statement on where he stands on the death penalty, 
Edwards has denied being the reason for the delays and challenged Landry on why 
the attorney general had not pushed changes to the state law on his own. That's 
when Landry released his draft of death penalty legislation.

Attorney General Jeff Landry is not happy with the pace of executions in the 
state.

Landry is also pushing for changes that would allow the pharmacy at Louisiana 
State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola, to mix its own execution cocktail 
and keep the formula secret to avoid lawsuits from the pharmaceutical companies 
that are now withholding their drugs for use in executions.

The primary reason for execution delays across the country is being caused by 
drug manufacturers who don't want their products associated with putting people 
to death.

The maker of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl joined a bid Monday (July 
30) to block the use of its product in what would be the 1st execution in 
Nevada in more than 12 years.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA overcame objections from the state to intervene in 
New Jersey-based Alvogen's lawsuit seeking to stop the use of its sedative 
midazolam in the execution of twice-convicted killer Scott Raymond Dozier. 
After sedation, Nevada plans to use fentanyl to put Dozier to death.

The move did not sit well with Nevada's solicitor general's office, which is as 
eager as Landry to get the line moving on death row.

"It's ironic that the maker of fentanyl, which is at the center of the nation's 
opioid crisis and is responsible for illegal overdoses every day is going to 
... claim reputational injury from being associated with a lawful execution," 
Deputy Nevada state Solicitor General Jordan T. Smith said in a filing against 
the intervention.

But the fact that the maker of fentanyl finds a connection to state executions 
to be distasteful says a lot about where public opinion stands on the death 
penalty.

Recent polls have put support for the death penalty at about 49 % nationally 
(with 42 % opposed) marking the 1st time in 45 years that support for capital 
punishment had polled below 50 %. It does, however, maintain support in 
Louisiana. A survey this year by LSU's Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs 
found that 58 % of Louisiana residents back capital punishment, while only 34 % 
oppose.

Still, you have to wonder how many legislators will relish the idea of standing 
up for the return of gas chamber, firings squads, the gallows and "Old Sparky" 
as symbols of the state's ultimate criminal justice. The other option is 
executing inmates in the name of the people of the Great State of Louisiana, 
but not allowing those people to know exactly how it is being done or what is 
being used. Not a great look for democracy.

(source: Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

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

When killers disregard innocents, nobody is safe


The 2 suspects who fired into a crowd of people in the 3400 block of South 
Claiborne Avenue Saturday evening were apparently gunning for a single man. The 
owner of Chicken and Watermelon, a restaurant in that block, says surveillance 
footage shows 2 men chasing another man who runs into a crowd of people on the 
block. He ran into the crowd, we can assume, for cover. He ran into the crowd 
because nobody with a conscience fires into a crowd when they're after 1 man. 
Nobody with a conscience fires into a crowd of strangers when those strangers 
haven't done anything to them.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said the 2 gunmen - 1 armed 
with a rifle, the other with a handgun - fired "indiscriminately." They hit 10 
people total and murdered 3, including the man they'd been chasing.

The shooting was reported in the 3400 block of South Claiborne Avenue.

Jeremiah Lee, 28, believed to be the intended target of the attack, died after 
his attackers stood over his prone body and kept firing shots at him, police 
said. A source with knowledge of the case told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
that Lee was affiliated with the Central City gang 3NG (Third and Galvez) and 
was known by the nickname "Zippa."

Also killed were 27-year-old Taiesha Watkins, a Houston woman who was visiting 
New Orleans to cheer up a friend whose mother had just died, and 38-year-old 
cement contractor Kurshaw Jackson. Watkins is survived by a 5-year-old 
daughter, Jackson by a 17-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son.

Taiesha Watkins, 27, of Houston, was mother to a 5-year-old daughter and had 2 
younger siblings.

Unfortunately, we've seen this kind of crime in New Orleans before. We've seen 
it multiple times.

On Memorial Day weekend 2012, gunmen targeting drug dealer Burnell Allen, fired 
on a 10-year-old's birthday party in Central City, killing Allen's 5-year-old 
daughter, Briana. That birthday party was for Ka'Nard Allen, who was grazed in 
the face during that attack. In 2013, Ka'Nard Allen was shot again, this time 
when 2 brothers stood on opposite sides of the street and fired onto a Mother's 
Day parade moving through the 7th Ward. In that attack, 19 people were injured, 
and 4 years later, local writer Deb Cotton, a chronicler of the city's 2nd-line 
culture, succumbed to the gunshot wounds she suffered.

Kurshaw Jackson, 38, was 1 of 3 people killed in Saturday's shooting on South 
Claiborne.

In November 2013, DeShawn Butler died in a Honda Sedan on the Crescent City 
Connection while trying to shield his 7-month-old son DeShawn Kinard, from 
gunfire, the baby's mother said. Father and son both died in that attack. 
Police say Butler was a member of the Fischer Fools gang and his attackers were 
affiliated with the Hot Block Gang.

In August 2014, a drive-by shooting in the Lower 9th Ward killed a 33-year-old 
man, a 16-year-old girl, left a 4-year-old child blind and a 2-year-old child 
with brain damage. The 32-year-old mother of the little children was struck in 
the abdomen. Another 37-year-old woman was injured. A 13-year-old girl was hit 
in the leg.

Police said the intended target was a 33-year-old Terrence McBride with a 
previous conviction for heroin possession and pending drug and weapons charges.

In December 2015, 12 days before doctors expected him to be born, an unborn 
baby was killed when gunman fired on a car in New Orleans East where his mother 
and father were sitting.

It was around that time that I heard a local pastor suggest that gunmen were 
making it a point not to avoid collateral damage, that they were sending a 
clear and chilling message that their enemies aren't safe anywhere: not in a 
crowd of strangers outside a restaurant or daiquiri shop, not at a child's 
birthday party, not in a crowd of parade-goers celebrating Mother's Day, not in 
a car with an occupied baby seat, not in a car with a woman heavy with child.

In the 1st season of Marvel Comics' Netflix series "Luke Cage," a man who 
labeled his Harlem barbershop "Switzerland" to send the message that there 
would be no fighting there, still ends up dying when gunmen track down a person 
hiding at the shop and attack with assault weapons. That attack enrages even 
the season's chief villain, a man so vicious he's called Cottonmouth. "Believe 
it or not," Cottonmouth fumes to another bad guy after the barber's murder, 
"there's supposed to be rules to this sh--."

The scariest part about violence in New Orleans is not just the frequency of 
the gunfire - although that's scary enough. The scariest part is what appears 
to be the complete and utter absence of rules.

Babies, pregnant women, pastel-colored birthday balloons, large crowds of 
revelers. Nothing seems to signal to potential murderers that they should 
retreat and catch their intended targets when they're more isolated.

Of course, what we really want is a city where people aren't tracked down and 
murdered at all. But let's start with a city that has a code of the streets 
that makes killing innocents an outrage and a code of the streets that makes 
turning in the killers of innocents mandatory.

When killers with no restraint roam the streets, nobody's safe.

(source: Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA.COM | The 
Times-Picayune)

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

Louisiana Attorney General Wants State to Hurry Up on Executions - Even If That 
Means Using 'Hanging, Firing Squad, or Electrocution'


The death penalty is surfacing as a key issue in Louisiana's upcoming 
gubernatorial election, in 2019. With execution drugs unavailable, the state's 
top prosecutor is proposing the use of new drugs, nitrogen-induced suffocation, 
or "hanging, firing squad, or electrocution," if necessary.

Lousiana has not executed anyone since 2010 when Gerald Bordelon was killed by 
lethal injection after being convicted of the murder of his 12-year old 
stepdaughter. Since then, the state has amassed over 70 inmates awaiting 
execution on death row.

The state's lack of access to necessary drugs required for lethal injection 
remains the largest obstacle to carrying these executions out.

In Lousiana, lethal injection remains the only legal form of execution 
available. But obtaining execution drugs has become difficult, especially after 
the drug company Pfizer joined with European drug manufacturers to ban their 
product from being used for executions.

In 2016, Louisiana requested and was approved for an 18-month extension on the 
execution of Christopher Sepulvado - convicted for fatally scalding and beating 
his stepson in 1992 - due to not having the necessary execution drugs.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick approved a year-long 
extension of execution delays after a request was filed by the state.

Defending his administration's request , Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said in a 
tweet that Louisiana was limited by a "legitimate problem with accessing drug 
protocol."

Attorney General Jeff LandryWikimedia CommonsBut Louisiana Attorney General 
Jeff Landry (R) is not convinced that the problem is legitimate, nor that a 
solution is really out of reach for Edwards. In a late July letter to the 
governor, Landry wrote: "If you truly respect the criminal justice system, the 
rule of law, and the rights of victims-there are a number of initial steps that 
can be taken".

Landry went on to recommend policy changes that would allow the usage of the 
drug midazolam, which has survived court challenges despite constant 
malfunctions. Additionally, he recommended that the state begin using the 
compounding capabilities of Angola, the prison facility where executions occur, 
to provide drugs while cooperating with the Department of Corrections "to avoid 
any pitfalls that may arise or to find other compounding pharmacies".

In 2014, Lousiana Department of Corrections contacted a compounding pharmacy 
but there remains uncertainty if any products were purchased.

Included with Landry's letter was draft legislation to expand the state's 
options for execution to include nitrogen hypoxia, an execution form that 
supposedly renders an inmate unconscious within moments, and eventually 
suffocates them. He goes on further to say that if that option is unavailable, 
then the method shall be by "hanging, firing squad, or electrocution, in the 
discretion of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections."

In an interview with Channel 33 in Baton Rouge, the governor expressed 
opposition to executions beyond lethal injections. "Hangings and firing squads? 
No," said Edwards. "I'm not inclined to go back to methods that have been 
discarded because popular sentiment turned against them, some methods deemed to 
be barbaric."

A potential candidate for governor in 2019, many speculate that Landry will use 
this issue to score points with the voters who desire a "tough on crime" 
candidate. This is one of many issues that Landry and Edwards disagree on and 
continue to battle with one another over.

Some, like New Orleans Advocate writer James Gill, find Landry's attempt to 
score political points with such an issue to be disrespectful and poor taste. 
"Landry wants to bring back hanging, that relic of America's days as a British 
colony," wrote Gill in his July 28 column.

"With polls showing a majority of voters in favor of capital punishment, Landry 
evidently thinks being gung-ho for carrying out death sentences will aid his 
gubernatorial aspirations" and "loses no opportunity to suggest Gov. John Bel 
Edwards is a wishy-washy liberal" on this issue, Gill continued.

Landry's actions might curry favor with the 58 percent of the Louisiana 
electorate that favors the death penalty. In May, a bill that would have 
abolished the death penalty in Louisiana failed to pass the Louisiana House of 
Representatives and did not make it beyond committee in the Louisiana Senate.

(source: reason.com)






OHIO:

Kasich done with stopping executions


Gov. John Kasich has finished dealing with executions for the remainder of his 
time in office after a modern-era record of death-penalty commutations.

The Republican governor spared 7 men from execution during his 2 terms in 
office, including commutations on March 26 and July 20. Kasich allowed 15 
executions to proceed, including the July 18 execution of Robert Van Hook for 
strangling, stabbing and dismembering a man he met in a Cincinnati bar more 
than 30 years ago.

Not since Democrat Mike DiSalle spared 6 death row inmates in the early 1960s 
has an Ohio governor spared so many killers during periods when the state had 
an active death chamber. DiSalle allowed 6 executions to proceed.

Democratic Gov. Richard Celeste commuted 8 death sentences just days before 
leaving office in 1991, but none of those inmates' executions was imminent.

Kasich "appreciates the gravity of this authority and therefore carefully 
considers these cases to make decisions that further justice," said spokesman 
Jon Keeling.

Kasich's immediate predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, commuted 5 
death sentences and allowed 17 executions during his 4-year term.

Ohio resumed executions in 1999 under Gov. Bob Taft after a 36-year gap. Taft, 
a Republican, allowed 20 executions to proceed and spared just 1 inmate based 
on concerns raised by DNA evidence not available at the time of trial.

Nationwide, governors have spared 288 death row inmates since the U.S. Supreme 
Court upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment in 1976, with a 
handful spared each year over the past decade. That doesn't include mass 
clemencies in states - such as New Jersey in 2007- where the death penalty was 
abolished and entire death rows were emptied.

(source: Associated Press)