CRITICS SAY SYSTEM NOT CONSISTENT

CRITICS SAY SYSTEM NOT CONSISTENT

And while Ohio has 88 counties, nearly half of Death Row's inhabitants come from two - Cuyahoga and Hamilton.

Those numbers, say the critics of capital punishment, show that the law is capricious. They say those who end up facing the death chamber may be vicious

criminals, but they may also be victims themselves - victims of a system that doles out penalties based upon where you live, the skills of your lawyers and, perhaps, your race.

"Just as homicide can be very arbitrary, so can the death penalty be very arbitrary in the way it's meted out," said Jana Schroeder, coordinator of the Dayton chapter of Ohioans to Stop Executions.

But capital-punishment supporters say the figures are misleading, that the system is as fair as possible and that society has every right to demand the ultimate penalty for some crimes.

"Most of those who trot out statistics are really just opposed to the death penalty, period," said state Sen. Gene Watts, R-Galloway. "They would oppose it no matter who was being executed."

Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery says those charged with capital crimes "are provided legal expertise that wasn't available decades ago. The accused have their day in court, and the system does work."

As Ohio moves toward its first execution in three decades, the debate will likely heat up - but there's little doubt that most politicians and most Ohioans now favor capital punishment.

When given the chance to do such things as speed up the legal process in capital cases, the General Assembly has done so. Perhaps not coincidentally, polls and voting patterns show great public support. "It's one issue where the numbers haven't varied much over a long period of time," said Al Tuchfarber, director of the Institute of Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati. "About eight out of 10 people support capital punishment."

Despite the argument that blacks are more likely to be convicted of capital crimes, Tuchfarber said sentiment does not vary much among races. "All Ohioans are very concerned about crime, and most see the death penalty as a possible deterrent and in some cases as proper punishment."

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DEATH PENALTY IN OHIO

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* July 31, 1885: First execution carried out at the old Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus.

* April 29, 1896: The 28th and final execution by hanging.

* March 15, 1963: Donald Reinbolt becomes the 315th and last person to date executed in Ohio's electric chair.

* 1972: U.S. Supreme Court rules the death penalty unconstitutional.

* 1974: The state legislature revises Ohio's death penalty, but the revised law also is declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978.

* Oct. 19, 1981: The current state capital punishment statute goes into effect.

* Oct. 21, 1981: Leonard Jenkins of Cleveland becomes the first person sentenced under the new law. But Jenkins and several other inmates - including all four women then on Death Row - had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment by Gov. Richard Celeste in 1991.

* October 1993: Ohio legislature makes lethal injection an alternative to electrocution.

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SOURCE: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction