| Section 1. (A) A sixteen-member Capital Case Commission shall | 6 |
|
be established as provided in this section. The Speaker and the | 7 |
|
Minority Leader of the
House of Representatives, one member of the | 8 |
|
House of
Representatives who is a member of the same political | 9 |
|
party as the
Speaker and is designated by the Speaker, one
member | 10 |
|
of the
House of Representatives who is a member of the same | 11 |
|
political
party as the Minority Leader and is designated by the | 12 |
|
Minority
Leader, the President and Minority Leader of the
Senate, | 13 |
|
one
member of the Senate who is a member of the same political | 14 |
|
party
as the President and is designated by the President, and one | 15 |
|
member
of the Senate who is a member of the same political party | 16 |
|
as the
Minority Leader and is designated by the Minority Leader | 17 |
|
shall jointly appoint the members of the
Commission. | 18 |
| The members of the Commission shall be
appointed in | 19 |
|
accordance with the criteria described in this
paragraph. Two | 20 |
|
members of the Commission shall be
members of the House
of | 21 |
|
Representatives and shall not be members
of
the same political | 22 |
|
party. Two members of the
Commission shall be
members of the | 23 |
|
Senate and shall not be members
of the same political party. Two | 24 |
|
members of the
Commission shall be judges of a court of common | 25 |
|
pleas, two members shall be judges of a court of appeals, two | 26 |
|
members shall be prosecuting attorneys, two
members shall be | 27 |
|
attorneys whose practice of law primarily
involves the | 28 |
|
representation of criminal defendants and who are
qualified under | 29 |
|
Rule 20 of the Rules of Superintendence for the
Courts of Ohio to | 30 |
|
be appointed as lead counsel in capital cases or
as appellate | 31 |
|
counsel
in cases where a death penalty has been
imposed, one | 32 |
|
member shall
be
a representative of an
organization that | 33 |
|
advocates
for the
rights of
victims of crime,
one member shall be | 34 |
|
a
representative
of an organization
that advocates for crime | 35 |
|
victims' families for
reconciliation, and two members
shall be | 36 |
|
members of the
general
public. The members of the
Commission who | 37 |
|
are members of
the House
of Representatives or
Senate shall be | 38 |
|
different
individuals than
the House or Senate
members who make | 39 |
|
the
appointments to the
Commission. Not
more
than eight members of | 40 |
|
the
Commission shall
be members of the
same
political party. When | 41 |
|
all
members are
appointed, the
Commission
promptly shall meet, | 42 |
|
select
a
chairperson and a
vice-chairperson,
and organize its | 43 |
|
activities. | 44 |
| The Attorney General, the State Public Defender, and the | 45 |
|
staff and employees of both of those public officials shall | 46 |
|
provide to the Commission, upon its request, research and | 47 |
|
technical services and support. Independent of this provision of | 48 |
|
services and support, the Commission may seek and obtain research | 49 |
|
and technical services and support from any individual, | 50 |
|
organization, association, college, or university. | 51 |
| (B) The Commission shall review and study all issues that
are | 52 |
|
related to the imposition and administration of capital
punishment | 53 |
|
in Ohio, specifically with respect to resolving capital
cases in a | 54 |
|
fair and orderly manner, to ensuring that all persons
charged with | 55 |
|
a capital offense receive adequate representation,
and to | 56 |
|
eliminating undue delay in capital cases. The activities of the | 57 |
|
Commission shall not affect, delay, or interfere with any pending | 58 |
|
capital case, including any appeal of a capital case in state or | 59 |
|
federal court or any postconviction relief proceeding or habeas | 60 |
|
corpus proceeding related to a capital case, and the case shall | 61 |
|
proceed during the Commission's performance of its activities and | 62 |
|
duties as if the Commission had not been created. The Commission | 63 |
|
shall do all of the following: | 64 |
| (1) Review all aspects of Ohio's procedures in capital cases | 65 |
|
and procedures related to capital sentencing and
punishment, | 66 |
|
including, but not limited to, the
pre-trial, trial, sentencing, | 67 |
|
direct appeal, and postconviction relief
procedures related to | 68 |
|
capital cases and to capital sentencing and punishment; | 69 |
| (2) For all trials that involved a charge that a person | 70 |
|
committed a capital offense on or after October 19, 1981, review | 71 |
|
and analyze all aspects of the trial, including, but not limited | 72 |
|
to, the
facts of each case, including any aggravating and | 73 |
|
mitigating
circumstances specified in sections 2929.03 and 2929.04 | 74 |
|
of the
Revised Code or otherwise present in the case, the race, | 75 |
|
gender,
religious preference, economic
status, age, and education | 76 |
|
of the defendant and the
victims, any mental impairment of the | 77 |
|
defendant, the adequacy of representation for the defendant and, | 78 |
|
if the defendant was indigent, the adequacy of funding for the | 79 |
|
defense of the defendant, the result of the case, and the sentence | 80 |
|
imposed upon the
defendant. In performing the duties prescribed in | 81 |
|
this division, the Commission shall not predict or attempt to | 82 |
|
predict the outcome in any pending case or critique the outcome in | 83 |
|
any resolved case but shall compile data and statistics from the | 84 |
|
cases regarding all aspects of the trial as described in this | 85 |
|
division. | 86 |
| (3) Review and analyze in general the procedures in
capital | 87 |
|
cases, including, but not limited to, the adequacy of counsel in | 88 |
|
all stages of capital cases
and the sufficiency of any existing | 89 |
|
guidelines or rules for the
appointment and performance of that | 90 |
|
counsel, the adequacy of funding for the defense of indigent | 91 |
|
defendants in capital cases, the process for judicial review in | 92 |
|
state postconviction
and federal habeas corpus proceedings of the | 93 |
|
merits of
constitutional claims present in or resulting from the | 94 |
|
cases,
whether there is any disproportional impact from
any aspect | 95 |
|
of
capital case procedures and proceedings, whether there is | 96 |
|
discrimination in capital sentencing,
on any illegal basis, | 97 |
|
whether
prosecutorial misconduct is present as a factor
in the | 98 |
|
imposition
of the death penalty, and the possibility that there | 99 |
|
are innocent
persons who have
been sentenced to death in Ohio; | 100 |
| (4) Obtain information regarding all aggravated murder cases | 101 |
|
in the two Category One counties selected under division (D)(1) of | 102 |
|
this section and
in the two Category Two counties selected under | 103 |
|
that division that
is necessary to comply with division (D)(2)(b) | 104 |
|
of
this section, including, but not limited to, information, to | 105 |
|
the extent it can be obtained, regarding the reasons for the | 106 |
|
prosecutorial decision as to whether to prosecute the cases as | 107 |
|
capital cases or to prosecute them as aggravated murder cases that | 108 |
|
are not capital cases; | 109 |
| (9) Not later than one year after the effective date of this | 129 |
|
section, prepare and submit to the Speaker and Minority Leader of | 130 |
|
the
House of Representatives, the President and Minority Leader of | 131 |
|
the
Senate, and the Governor a preliminary report that sets forth | 132 |
|
its preliminary findings
regarding the imposition and | 133 |
|
administration of capital sentencing
and punishment in Ohio and | 134 |
|
its preliminary recommendations for
improving Ohio's procedures in | 135 |
|
capital cases and procedures
related to capital sentencing and | 136 |
|
punishment in
Ohio; | 137 |
| (a) A data set that contains information for all Ohio
capital | 180 |
|
cases in which a defendant was sentenced on or after
October 19, | 181 |
|
1981, and not later than July 1, 2006. This data set
shall profile | 182 |
|
all defendants and victims of capital offenses in
those cases and | 183 |
|
shall summarize the processing of those cases,
including, but not | 184 |
|
limited to, the time frames between major
decision points in the | 185 |
|
cases, an analysis of the statutes and
rules governing the | 186 |
|
litigation of those cases, and an in-depth
study of those cases | 187 |
|
that required corrective appellate action. | 188 |
| (b) A data set that contains information for all cases in
the | 189 |
|
four counties selected under division (D)(1) of this section
in | 190 |
|
which a person was sentenced, on or after October 19, 1981, and | 191 |
|
not
later than July 1, 2006, for aggravated murder. This
data set | 192 |
|
shall
contain profiles and summaries of
the type
described in | 193 |
|
division
(D)(2)(a) of this section, as they
relate to
the cases | 194 |
|
described
in this division, shall specify for each of those cases | 195 |
|
whether the case was a capital case or was not a capital case, and | 196 |
|
shall specify for each of those cases, to the extent it can be | 197 |
|
determined, the reasons for the prosecutorial decision to | 198 |
|
prosecute the case as a capital case or to prosecute it as an | 199 |
|
aggravated murder case that was not a capital case. This data set | 200 |
|
shall be
further
separated into a
subcategory that contains the | 201 |
|
specified information
for the
two Category One counties
selected | 202 |
|
under division (D)(1) of this section and a separate
subcategory | 203 |
|
that
contains the specified information for the two Category Two | 204 |
|
counties selected under that division. This data set shall
contain | 205 |
|
the
specified information
for all aggravated murder cases
in the | 206 |
|
four subject counties,
including capital cases and cases
that are | 207 |
|
not
capital cases. | 208 |
| (c) A data set that consists of a comparative analysis of the | 209 |
|
information contained
in the data set described in division | 210 |
|
(D)(2)(b) of this section
to the information contained in the data | 211 |
|
set described in division (D)(2)(a) of this section, with the | 212 |
|
analysis focusing on the difference between a capital case and an | 213 |
|
aggravated murder case that is not a capital case. Using a | 214 |
|
representative sample of the cases to which the data set described | 215 |
|
in division (D)(2)(b) of this section pertains, the analysis shall | 216 |
|
include, but not be limited to, a determination of the incremental | 217 |
|
additional costs of prosecution, defense, and appeals of a capital | 218 |
|
case as compared to an aggravated murder case that is not a | 219 |
|
capital case. The Commission may utilize the information in the | 220 |
|
data sets described in divisions (D)(2)(a) and (b) of this section | 221 |
|
for any other purpose in the performance of its duties under this | 222 |
|
section. | 223 |