Ohio DP history

July 17, 2006

Ohio has executed 22 people since it reinstated the death penalty in 1999, with the latest execution just last week.

A botched execution and a case that has been repeatedly delayed have some questioning the purpose of the ultimate sentence: a walk to the death house.

THE DEATH PENALTY: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 

Since our nation's founding, the government -- colonial, federal and state -- has punished murder and, until recent years, rape with the ultimate sanction: death. 

 More than 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times, most of them in the early 20th Century. By the 1930s, as many as 150 people were executed each year. However, public outrage and legal challenges caused the practice to wane. By 1967, capital punishment had virtually halted in the United States, pending the outcome of several court challenges.

1. Kids are Different
The law prohibits persons under the age of 18 from voting, serving in military combat and on juries, making medical decisions, entering into contracts, marrying, leaving home, buying cigarettes, and drinking alcohol precisely because adolescents are less mature than adults. However, in some states, they can be executed for crimes they committed before the age of maturity. Furthermore, of all offenders, adolescents are the most capable of rehabilitation given their youth, immaturity and potential for growth.

Mental illness is defined as "Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma."   Some of the more common illnesses experienced by inmates on death row may include: