Bloom like last year is best hope
The first official forecast for 2017’s harmful algal bloom season is tentatively optimistic.
The amount of phosphorous in Lake Erie’s western basin is about the same as last year’s levels, barring unexpected extreme rainfall in the coming weeks, according
are released because they were found innocent or because of serious constitutional mistakes in their cases.
It is a rare piece of legislation on which three groups often at odds — the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati, the Ohio Public Defender and Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association — are in agreement.
Seitz said the Ohio Supreme Court has wrongly interpreted state law to limit financial awards only to former inmates where constitutional procedural errors were made after their sentencing, not during their investigation or at trial.
If passed, the change would not be retroactive to cover previous cases. However, it could be applied to old cases if they are resubmitted to be reviewed under the new law.
Mark Godsey, of the Innocence Project, said the court improperly denied compensation to several of his clients freed from prison, including David Ayers, a Cleveland man cleared of murder charges in 2011 after serving 11 years in prison.
It appears the law change might also affect the case of Dale Johnston, now of Grove City, convicted of the 1982 Hocking County murders of his stepdaughter and her fiance.
Johnston won his freedom on appeal after seven years because of a finding of prosecutorial misconduct and of withholding evidence.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Johnston could seek compensation for wrongful imprisonment, but a lower court — using the same allegedly flawed legal reasoning cited by Seitz — said Johnston could not sue the state.
Current state law allows compensation of $52,625 per inmate for each year of wrongful incarceration. In addition, attorneys’ fees, court fees and other expenses might be compensated.
Seitz’s proposal would make several other changes, including applying wrongful-imprisonment compensation findings to misdemeanor cases and allowing courts to deduct debts from an ex- prisoner’s payout.
Seitz said he is aware that some Ohioans oppose compensation to ex- prisoners, even if they are wrongfully convicted.
“If it was you, you would care mightily,” Seitz said. “Even the amount of compensation you can get is modest and insufficient for being wrongfully deprived from being in society.”
Kari Bloom of Ohio Public Defender Tim Young’s office and John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said they generally agree with Seitz’s legislation.