Kasich clemency record a welcome sign of calmer waters

In the 31 states that impose the death penalty, including Ohio, the most somber responsibility governors face is making decisions on commutations.

Gov. John Kasich will finish his eight-year tenure in five months, having spared seven killers from execution while allowing 15 death sentences to proceed.

According to research by Andrew Welsh-Huggins of the Associated Press, Kasich has set a modernera record for sparing killers during periods when the state had an active death chamber.

Kasich’s decisions on executions were made amid relative calm and provoked little controversy. Times have changed for the better.

Whether one supports or opposes capital punishment, Ohioans should welcome having life-ordeath decisions made in a sober and low-key manner, free from derision and political grandstanding. For many decades, this was not the case.

Some of Ohio’s older citizens can recall the white-hot condemnation accompanying death penalty commutations issued by Gov. Michael V. DiSalle between 1959 and 1962.

An ardent opponent of the death penalty, DiSalle was pilloried in the legislature and in the editorial pages of Ohio’s major newspapers for commuting the sentences of five men and one woman from death to life in prison.

Three decades later, Gov. Richard F. Celeste was similarly scorned. In January 1991, just four days before leaving office, Celeste commuted the death sentences of eight convicted murderers — four men and four women, although none of their executions was imminent.

Because of federal court decisions, Ohio had no executions between 1963 and 1999. When executions were resumed under Gov. Bob Taft, he allowed 20 executions to proceed during his two terms. He spared one inmate because of concerns over DNA evidence that surfaced after trial.

Gov. Ted Strickland, in his single four-year term, commuted five death sentences and allowed 17 executions.

Gallup Inc. has been measuring public opinion on the death penalty since 1937. In March 1960 during DiSalle’s term, Gallup recorded 53 percent of Americans favoring the death penalty, with 36 percent opposed.

Between 1966 and 1994, Gallup found ever-rising support for the death penalty, based on concerns over rising rates of violent crime. The highest level of support for the death penalty ever recorded by Gallup was 80 percent in September 1994.

Since then, support for the death penalty has declined to levels comparable to those during DiSalle’s day. In October 2017, Gallup found 55 percent of Americans supporting the death penalty with 41 percent opposed.

Much of the decline is due to two factors: the emergence of DNA evidence revealing occasional convictions of the innocent and research on the role of severe mental illness in the behavior of some offenders.

Such concerns prompted the Ohio Supreme Court to commission a twoyear study on the state’s administration of the death penalty. In 2014, a 22-member task force issued 56 recommendations for improving the system.

Among them: prohibit the death penalty for defendants with “serious mental illness” and require biological or DNA evidence linking the defendant to a murder.

Thoughtful Ohioans will disagree on whether their state should have a death penalty, but they should readily agree the political environment surrounding its application has been steadily improving.