I was taken aback by the following brochure that arrived in my mail this week from the Ohio State Bar Association.
Per the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Web site, the last year in which hanging was the method of execution in Ohio was 1897. Hanging was ended as Ohio’s method of execution one hundred and twelve years ago. Yet, today, the Ohio State Bar Association has decided that a noose is a a good visual for a Continuing Legal Education workshop on “Death Penalty Defense: Trials and Appeals.”
It would be one thing if this was a random workshop from a random organization about the death penalty. But this isn’t. This is the Ohio State Bar Association providing education for lawyers on the current criminal justice system.
Bad call, OSBA.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
Agreed — hanging has become so uncommon as a form of state execution, I’d say the noose is now more identified with extralegal lynchings. (See, e.g., George Allen’s not convincing anyone when he claimed the noose he kept in his office was a reference to “law’n'order.”)