Ohio justice calls for end of state's death penalty

COLUMBUS (AP) — An Ohio Supreme Court justice who helped write the state's death-penalty law three decades ago is calling for an end to capital punishment in the state.

Justice Paul Pfeifer was one of the leading proponents of Ohio's death-penalty law as a state legislator in the 1970s and 1980s.

Pfeifer also said today that Gov. John Kasich should consider commuting the death sentences of all inmates condemned to die to life without parole.

Pfeifer, a Republican, was chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee as Ohio debated the capital punishment bill that became law in 1981.

He says the recent decrease in death sentences is a sign society believes life sentences are punishment enough.