Petitions oppose clemency for Getsy

The case could affect other death-penalty cases, one activist said.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Miriam Fife, victim-witness advocate for Trumbull County, has started a petition drive to let Gov. Ted Strickland know how many people oppose clemency for Jason Getsy, the former Hubbard man scheduled to die by lethal injection Aug. 18.

The state parole board last week recommended that Getsy, 33, who killed 66-year-old Ann Serafino and wounded her son, Charles Serafino, in their Hubbard Township home July 7, 1995, be spared the death penalty.

The decision rests with Gov. Strickland to either commute his sentence to life in prison without parole or to go forward with the death penalty. There is no specific deadline for Strickland to make his decision other than the execution date, Fife said.

Fife said she fears the reason the parole board gave for recommending clemency for Getsy — the fact that the man who ordered the killing, co-defendant John Santine, did not get the death penalty — does not spread to clemency for other defendants.

Taken to an extreme, the concept could lead to clemency for Danny Lee Hill, the man who killed Fife’s own son, Raymond, in 1985, she said, since a co-defendant in that case, Raymond Combs, did not receive the death penalty. Combs was not eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time.

Fife hopes to have as many signatures on petitions, e-mails and letters as possible sent to the governor’s assistant, Jose Torres, by Monday, the day Torres is scheduled to make his recommendation to the governor.

Additional e-mails, petitions and letters after Monday are still warranted, Fife noted.

Fife asks that anyone wishing to sign a petition to call her at (330) 675-2552 to arrange to sign one of them. They are at the Hubbard Township Police Department, Hubbard City Hall, and the Hubbard City Police Department. You can also e-mail Torres at jose.torres@governor.oh.gov., or mail him a letter at the address: Jose Torres, Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43215-6108.