Stratton Authored Opinion Piece for The Columbus Dispatch

Eve Stratton, of counsel in the Vorys Columbus office, authored an opinion piece for The Columbus Dispatch titled "Severely mentally ill will not be executed in Ohio, but work remains." The article focused on a major step taken toward recognizing the role of serious mental health impairments in our criminal justice system.

The article states:

"Ohio has taken a major step toward recognizing the role of serious mental health impairments in our criminal justice system.

People with severe mental illness will no longer be executed by the state, thanks to a bill approved by the legislature and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine.

I am grateful to those legislators who championed this recommendation of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Joint Task Force into law. During my tenure as a Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court, I long believed that the Ohio General Assembly should exempt people with serious mental illness from the death penalty.

Legislation barring the execution of those who were severely mentally ill at the time of their offense was among 56 recommendations issued by the Ohio Supreme Court’s Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio’s Death Penalty in 2014. That task force was charged with recommending changes to make Ohio’s death penalty system the fairest and most reliable system possible. Yet only a handful of its recommendations have been enacted."

Read the entire article here.