Prosecutor opposes death penalty bill

Adolf Hitler. Timothy McVeigh. Osama bin Laden.

Those are some of the killers proposed legislation in the Ohio Senate would likely keep from being executed, according to Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell.

"In my opinion, almost everyone who commits capital offenses likely has some level of mental illness, otherwise they would be incapable of committing these horrific acts," Fornshell, a Republican, said on his Facebook page.

State Sen. Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland, told The Enquirer she sponsored the proposed bill because it is an attempt "to protect the most vulnerable people" in society.

She said Fornshell's statement illustrates much of what is wrong with the criminal justice system.

"They try to put everybody in the same bag," she said. "I disagree. I would not say that everybody who commits a heinous crime is mentally ill. Every case has to be judged on an individual basis."

The U.S. Supreme Court currently prohibits the execution of people with mental disabilities. The proposed bill, also sponsored by state senator Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, would expand that to include forbidding the execution of those with illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

It also would allow someone on death row to be resentenced to life in prison if they could prove they suffer from a serious mental illness, according to the bill.

But a disorder brought on by criminal conduct or substance abuse would not make a defendant ineligible for the death penalty.

Fornshell called the legislation "seriously misguided."

He said it "adds yet another hoop for prosecutors to jump through" for acts "society simply cannot tolerate."

Three people were sentenced to death in Ohio last year. One of those was Austin Myers, now 20, who killed a childhood friend and dumped his body in Preble County.

Prosecuted by Fornshell, he is the youngest inmate on Ohio's death row. Fornshell also is seeking the death penalty in a murder case set for trial this summer.

But he doesn't think the death penalty is used excessively in Ohio.

"If people looked at the charges and circumstances surrounding all the cases that don't get the death penalty, more people than not would be shocked and upset," he recently told The Enquirer.

The bill, which has 12 co-sponsors, is in the Ohio Senate's Criminal Justice Committee.