Columbus Dispatch

 2/17/02

Upcoming Ohio Execution Raises Troubling Questions 

John Byrd, who has always maintained his innocence, is scheduled for execution in Ohio on Feb. 19.  Byrd was convicted primarily on the testimony of a jail-house informant.  Similar testimony has been found suspect leading to exonerations of death row inmates in other states.  In addition, another man, John Brewer, has signed an affidavit admitting that he killed the victim, not Byrd.  Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., has voiced his opposition to Byrd's execution.  In a letter to the Governor, Schlesinger wrote that capital punishment "should be reserved for cases where there is absolutely no shred or tremor of doubt . . . . The case of John Byrd is, to say the least, shrouded in doubt."