Monday, September 11, 2017

USA: Stop Executions in Ohio - ONLINE ACTION

Amnesty International, USA, September 10, 2017

The next execution in Ohio is scheduled for September 13, 2017 for Gary Otte (OH’tay). Otte, 45, who has been on death row for 24 years, and was sentenced to die before his 21st birthday. On Friday, September 1, Governor Kasich denied clemency to Otte and also delayed 19 of the 26 remaining scheduled executions.

It has been three and a half years since the botched execution of Dennis McGuire took place in Ohio on January 16, 2014. Since that time, three innocent men have been released from death row in Ohio after their wrongful convictions were finally exposed. Ohio has freed a total of nine innocent men from death row.  ...One estimate by the National Academy of Sciences suggests that as many as 4% of death row prisoners could be innocent.

Despite these unsettling developments, Ohio has scheduled 27 new execution dates through 2022, beginning with Ronald Phillips, who was executed on July 26, 2017. With the state’s history of wrongful convictions and botched executions, Ohio must recognize that the death penalty is broken beyond repair. Please tell Governor Kasich to stop these executions.