COLUMBUS — Before leaving office Jan. 9, Gov. Ted Strickland said he hopes to make decisions on all 1,200 applications for clemency now piled on his desk.
“I’ve been working through them. I’ve been spending hours and hours and hours. I spent about three hours this morning working on them,” Strickland said on Thursday.
He said these days he is spending the majority of his time on the clemency applications and he expects to rule on a batch of clemency requests within a week or so.
Strickland, a former prison psychologist, said some applications aren’t good candidates for extensive consideration while others are more complex.
The Ohio Constitution authorizes the governor to issue commutations or pardons. A commutation lessens the punishment for a crime and a pardon wipes it off the offender’s record.
A year ago, Strickland granted 68 pardons, commuted 10 sentences and denied 218 other requests for clemency. During his tenure, he also granted commutation to five death row inmates but signed off on the executions of 17 men.
By law and under the Ohio Constitution, the governor may not act on a clemency request until he receives a written recommendation from the parole board.
The Ohio Innocence Project, a legal clinic based at the University of Cincinnati law school, plans to send in clemency requests on behalf of several clients, including Roger Dean Gillispie. Gillispie, 45, formerly of Fairborn, has served nearly 20 years for kidnapping and raping three women in two separate incidents — crimes he has always said he did not commit. No physical evidence ties Gillispie to the crimes.
If Gillispie’s clemency application follows the normal process, it will not make it to Strickland’s desk before he leaves office. The parole board typically takes four to seven months to investigate a clemency application, said Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman JoEllen Smith.
Strickland said his staff has discussed Gillispie’s case with the Ohio Innocence Project but he personally does not know the details of the case.
“I’m trying to be fair and deliberative in my decision making. I don’t want to just start picking and choosing what I look at based upon, I mean, A lot of people are calling about a lot of cases: ‘Can you look at this?’...I don’t think that’s the way this process ought to be handled,” he said. “I think it ought to be handled carefully and deliberatively and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
During his eight years as governor, Republican Bob Taft granted 77 clemency requests, or 5.7 percent of the 1,355 applications received and processed.
And in his final days in office in 1991, Democrat Richard Celeste sparked headlines when he commuted the sentences of eight death row inmates to life without parole and granted pardons for 25 women who blamed their crimes on battered women syndrome.
Governor’s Powers: the state constitution authorizes the governor to grant pardons and commutations for all crimes save treason and impeachment.
Parole Board: the governor may not act on a clemency application until the Parole Board issues a written recommendation
Pardon: a complete forgiveness for a crime committed, eliminating all penalties and legal consequences for the crime. A full, unconditional pardon wipes the slate clean for the individual.
Commutation: changing the legal punishment for commission of a crime to a lesser punishment
Process: An application starts at the Parole Board, which reviews it as well as details of the crime, prison and probation files, victim statements, criminal and social histories and community attitude. The Parole Board may send its recommendation to the governor with or without first holding a hearing. The governor’s legal staff reviews the Parole Board report and any other relevant information and makes a recommendation. The governor looks at the recommendations from staff and parole officials and the totality of the information and makes a decision.
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