COLUMBUS, Ohio — A recent decision by a Cleveland judge to overrule a jury’s death sentence recommendation for a triple killer highlights how rare such judicial decisions are.
Research by The Associated Press found just eight additional examples of judicial overrides since Ohio’s current death penalty law took effect in 1981. That’s compared with more than 320 death sentences handed down during the same time period.
Overriding death sentences can be politically risky for judges, who are elected in Ohio and many other states, said Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor and sentencing expert.
Many cases with strong evidence against capital punishment for a defendant are resolved with plea bargains before ever reaching a jury, he added. Those cases typically involve pretrial research turning up strong mitigating evidence — a horrific childhood or mental disabilities, for example — that outweigh what are called aggravating circumstances, such as the brutality of the crime.