While Gov. Bill Richardson recently signed a bill repealing New Mexico’s death penalty, Ohio Attorney General Rich Cordray is going in the other direction. Cordray today told the AP that appeals take too long and sometimes prevent justice from being done:
Cordray tells The Associated Press on Wednesday that, even if lengthy appeals result in a new trial, it’s difficult to feel justice can be achieved because so much has changed over time.
Cordray also says it’s a bogus argument to say the death penalty should be eliminated because cases take too long and cost too much.
Cordray, a Democrat, says there are plenty of participants in the system doing their best to delay cases and it’s not justifiable to then complain about the length of appeals.
Too bad. It’s one thing to defend the law, which is the proper role of an A.G., regardless of his or her view; it’s another thing to be a Democrat providing pro-death penalty folks with fodder like this. It’s not a full statement of his policy view, but it definitely leans closer to a pro-death penalty policy than I’d prefer to see. Of course, this could be selective paraphrasing, and he could have said some helpful stuff as well. I’d love to see Cordray explain more fully where he stands on the death penalty as policy.
[UPDATE: Here is Ohio's Capital Crimes Annual Report (PDF), issued today, which notes that more than half (50.6%) of Ohio's death row inmates are black and nearly two-thirds (62%) of the victims in pending cases were white.]
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Chris Geidner is the senior political writer at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. 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