-Prohibition Against Race-based Death Penalty sentences

 Ohio Senator Charleta Taverson yesterday introduced a bill that would provide that a defendant could not be executed if his/her race was the basis of the decision to seek or impose the death penalty for a crime.

Further provisions include:

•  Permitting a defendant to file a motion alleging the defendant's race was the basis of the decision to seek or impose the death penalty and  that the death penalty was sought or imposed on the basis of race in the defendant's case by showing that race was a significant factor in decisions to seek or impose a sentence of death in the state, the county, or the prosecutor's office at the time that a sentence of death was sought or imposed in the defendant's case

•  Require that a court that finds race was such a significant factor in the defendant's case to order that the death penalty not be sought or to vacate the sentence of death and resentence the defendant to life imprisonment without parole, and require a defendant to waive any objection to a sentence to life imprisonment without parole as a condition of filing the motion for relief.

Text of Senate Bill 183