Governor DeWine and the death penalty: We talked about it last week on this podcast, and this week we will dig a little deeper into the reasons why the former tough-on-crime prosecutor now says Ohio should stop executing people.

To recap:

In the early 1980s, a tough-on-crime former prosecutor helped write Ohio’s death penalty law. That new state senator was Mike DeWine. As Ohio’s attorney general, DeWine helped carry out 15 executions. Now in his final days as governor, DeWine says Ohio should abolish capital punishment. His sole reason is that it is not a deterrent to murder because it takes too long to execute someone.

At this point, DeWine’s change in position seems little more than symbolic. Republican leaders in the Legislature support the death penalty. There is no movement ready to put it on the ballot.

For deeper analysis, we turn to WOSU-TV’s "Columbus on the Record" panel: OSU political scientist Herb Asher, Republican strategist Terry Casey and Ohio Public Radio Statehouse reporter Sarah Donaldson.

Snollygoster of the week

This week, we give it to Governor DeWine for quietly commuting the death sentence of Gregory Lott. We talked about it earlier, and it appears he had very valid reasons for the commutation. There was nothing shrewd about that.

What is snollygoster-like is that he did not let the public know about it. He commuted the sentence on May 27, three weeks before his announcement that he now opposes capital punishment.

The governor’s office sends out at least one press release per day, creating a steady stream of communication that flows into reporters’ email inboxes. Usually, his office is touting a groundbreaking or ribbon-cutting he has attended or will attend. He announces science of reading successes and appointments to little-known boards and commissions. He generates a lot of press material, and he does make big announcements.

Not this time. He commuted the sentence of a man who committed a horrific crime, yet there was no press release, and he did not mention it at his news conference. He was even asked for his thoughts on commuting a sentence, but there was not a peep about how he had done just that.

We do not know why he kept it a secret, but it was pretty shrewd to do so.

(photo: Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos / AP)