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Ohio's GOP attorney general calls for discussion on lawmakers' bill to abolish the death penalty introduced by Ohio Senator Nickie Antonio, and state Senators Huffman, Hearcel and Reynolds...Most people on death row in Ohio are Black

01 April 2023

Kathy

Pictured in the long view of this article are Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) (center) a Lakewood Democrat, and state Sens. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) (2nd from rt), Hearcel F. Craig (D-Columbus) (far rt) and Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) (far lt)

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood), a Lakewood Democrat, and state Sens. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City), Hearcel F. Craig (D-Columbus) and Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) held a press conference this week at the statehouse in Columbus to discuss bipartisan legislation introduced by the lawmakers that, if passed, would put a historical end to Ohio's death penalty and make the most stringent sentence for a capital crime in Ohio life in prison without the possibility of parole. The announcement was followed by a public statement issued Friday by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost who said that while he opposes the bill and supports the death penalty "let’s open up the conversation and allow victims’ families to be heard.”

From 1981 through Dec. 31, 2022 people in Ohio have received a combined total of 341 death sentences, according to the recently released 2022 Capital Crimes Report, and of those 341 death sentences, only 56, or one in six, have been carried out.

Though Ohio is only 13 percent Black, Blacks make up more than half of the inmates on death row in the buckeye state. Once a pivotal state for presidential elections, the state has turned red since former president Donald Trump, a Republican making his third bid for the presidency in 2024, won it and the White House in 2016 over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and again in 2020 when he lost reelection to current President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Flanked by the three other state senators sponsoring the bill, Antonio said at Tuesday's press briefing that "it is time for the state of Ohio to take the pragmatic, economically prudent and principled step to end capital punishment." Her newly carved 23rd state senate district, a byproduct of redistricting that took effect this year, includes state legislative districts 13, 14 and 15, parts of the cities of Lakewood, Euclid and Parma, and 14 of Cleveland's 17 wards. The state senator says that she is fighting for all of her constituents, and that seeking to end the death penalty continues to be part of her mission as a state lawmaker

"It will take all of us working together to make this kind of monumental change in Ohio," she said. "We join a growing call for abolition against a backdrop of public opinion, which increasingly favors life sentences over the use of the death penalty in Ohio and across the nation."

Antonio agrees that getting the bill through Ohio's Republican-dominated state legislature might be difficult as similar bills have failed But she says that this time around more people and more lawmakers are on board.

Only seven members of Ohio's 33-member senate are Democrats and of the 99 members in the Ohio House of Representatives only 32 are Democrats. Moreover, all of Ohio's statewide offices are held by Republicans, including the offices of governor, secretary of state and the state attorney general, all but three seats on the largely Republican Ohio Supreme Court, a relatively conservative court that is majority female and led by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican and former cop and social worker turned judge.

The controversial bill has bipartisan support with co-sponsorship from state Sens Blessing (R-Cincinnati), Craig (D-Columbus), DeMora (D-Columbus), Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo), Ingram (D-Cincinnati), Lang (R-West Chester), Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) Roegner (R-Hudson), Smith (D-Euclid), and Sykes (D-Akron). It is also supported by a host of Civil rights and other organizations, including the NAACP, which has long opposed the death penalty due to racial disparities and what it says is an intrinsically racist legal system that disenfranchises Blacks and other minority groups, and poor people.

The three other state senators who are sponsoring the bill with Antonio, state Sens. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City), Hearcel F. Craig (D-Columbus) and Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester), Huffman and Ryynolds Republicans and Craig a Democrat, also spoke at Tuesday's press conference, and like Antonio, they too are adamant about getting the bill passed.

"Like so many Ohioans, I once supported capital punishment and over time, with prayer and reflection, have come to believe it's the wrong policy for the state of Ohio," said state Sen Huffman with state Sen Craig adding that Ohio's death penalty is not equitably applied .

"It is clear that the death penalty is not a sentence being applied justly or fairly," said Sen Craig. "This remains a deeply complicated and deeply divided issue that has led to the real threat of wrongful executions." The state lawmaker went on to say that "this change does not ignore the importance of retribution and punishment but advances a fairer criminal justice system in Ohio."

State Sen Michelle Reynolds, the fourth sponsor of the bill and a Black state senator like Craig, added that "I believe that life begins at conception and ends in natural death. The death penalty, as it is applied today, devalues the dignity of human life. Human life should not be a bargaining chip.

Efforts to abolish the death penalty in Ohio have been underway for decades and and supported by the majority of Ohioans. Opponents of the death penalty ague that it is a punishment that has shown to be administered with disparities across racial and economic lines And data also show that it has failed as a deterrent to violent crime and has prolonged the victimization of murder victims' families and loved ones through lengthy appeals processes.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Last Updated on Sunday, 02 April 2023 03:07

Once arrested in Ohio, Stormy Daniels speaks of Trump’s indictment

01 April 2023

Kathy

Stormy Daniels’ mugshot from her arrest in Columbus, Ohio (Courtesy Photo/Columbus Division of Police)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The porn actress entangled in a case that ultimately led to the first criminal indictment against a former U.S. president also saw her own charges in Columbus, but she wasn’t the one who saw punitive action at the end of it.

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, rose to fame beyond the adult industry over a $130,000 payment given to her before former President Donald Trump’s election in 2016. The payment was made as part of a nondisclosure agreement as Daniels was prepared to go public with claims she had a sexual relationship with Trump — an affair he denies.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE A NBC4I.COM

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Last Updated on Saturday, 01 April 2023 01:11

Activists to picket Cleveland 19 news and its reporter, WOIO reporter Kelly Kennedy, whom they say systematically excludes Black women organizers of Cleveland and Black activists from news stories she covers in a biased fashion

29 March 2023

Kathy

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland activists are slated to picket and boycott Cleveland 19 News and reporter Kelly Kennedy of WOIO television, whom community activists of Cleveland say is slick, distrustful, and anti-Black. Cleveland 19 news cut all Black activists and organizers out of its March 28, 2023 coverage as to the 10-year anniversary of the Cleveland East 93rd Street serial murders using reporter Kelly Kennedy, who also cut out Black women and Black women organizers in a television news story when Women's March Cleveland protested this past summer with nearly 300 people at the Cuyahoga County administration building for reproductive resources, which were later granted by county council, the county board of control, and then county executive Armond Budish Kennedy, say activists, is allegedly operating to undermine them and to cover up their concerns as to the lack of police and other accountability regarding the heightened murders of Black women in Cleveland and the failure of politicians to address the problem.

The daughter of East 93rd Street Serial Murders murder victim Christine Malone, who asked Imperial Women Coalition to organized the annual rally as they usually do, said that both 19 News and News 5 Cleveland called the family ahead of Tuesday's anniversary rally and tried to interview them away from activists but the family said no This is according to Angelique Malone, Christine's daughter. After efforts failed to divide activists and the murder victims families News 5 Cleveland did not cover the event but 19 News and reporter Kelly Kennedy showed at the rally and cut out all Black activists and the march in subsequent news coverage. This was done in bad faith, say activists, and with malice and likely racial animus too

The activists say that it is time to picket and boycott mainstream media racism and sexism in Cleveland against Blacks and Black women of Cleveland They say that Blacks should not be systematically excluded relative to mainstream media coverage in Cleveland This is the 21st century, they say.

Below is our story by Black Cleveland community activists leading up to the 10th anniversary of the Cleveland East 93rd Street Serial Murders rally on March 28, 2023 that caused the aforementioned controversy. Activists say that Kennedy stole their story leading up to the anniversary rally as her own and that of Cleveland 19 News, a WOIO affiliate, and then shut Black activists and Black women organizers out of her news story.

Staff article-March 26, 2023

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Tuesday, March 28, 2023 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Cleveland East 93rd Street Serial Murders and community activists, led by Imperial Women Coalition, which has organized every anniversary rally and vigil since 2014, will hold a vigil at the intersection of East 93rd Street and Bessemer Avenue on the city's largely Black east side The event will also include the family members or supporters of murder victims Jazmine Trotter, Ashley Leszyeski, Christine Malone, and Jameela Hasan, and will be led by Malone's daughter, Angelique Malone, one of her surviving eight adult children. Trotter's twin sister and mother will also speak, organizers said.

All four were killed along a two mile strip near East 93rd Street and Bessemer Avenue up to Harvard Avenue and 14 year- old Aliana Defreeze, a fifth murder victim, was also killed nearby, her killer caught, convicted, and now on death row. Other than Alianna, a teenager abducted on her way to school and later murdered, the killer or killers remain at large, and all of the murder victims were Black but Leszyeski.

"Our family will continue to participate in rallies to remember the victims and to work to bring their killer or killers to justice and we thank Kathy Wray Coleman and other community activists, and the media, for keeping this issue alive" said Angelique Malone, a daughter of murder victim Christine Malone, She added that "we want our mother's killer found and brought to justice as well as those of other Cleveland women whose killers are still out there running free."

Seasoned Cleveland activist Kathy Wray Coleman of Imperial Women Coalition, a grassroots group founded as to the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Avenue by the late serial killer Anthony Sowell, has organized every rally and vigil and said that "something has to be done about these cold cases as well as escalating heinous violence against Black women in a predominantly Black city like Cleveland." She said further that "we have been patient for so long as we continue to seek redress and public policy changes for the betterment of Black women of Cleveland, poor women, other women of color, and children who are subjected to unnecessary violence."

Hasan, 37, was stabbed 17 times and murdered in December of 2012 in an east side apartment, and Malone, 45, and Trotter, 20, were both killed in March of 2013. Leszyeski, 21 at the time of her death, was murdered in May of 2013, and DeFreeze, a teenager, was murdered in January of 2017 in an abandoned home. Leszyeski was White and resided on the city's West Side, her body discovered in a vacant field on the city's east side, and with her hand cut off.

Malone's body was found in a field at the intersection of East 93rd street and Bessemer Avenue on March 28, 2013 where Tuesday's 10-year anniversary event will be held and Trotter's body was discovered under an abandoned home. March 28, 2023 marks 10 years to the day since Malone's body was found and her family is most active of the murdered women in rallying annually with community activists where her body was discovered to keep the unsolved murders before the public.

Alianna DeFreeze was murdered by previously convicted sex predator Christopher Whitaker, who was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death by Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Judge Carolyn Friedland. He chopped her body into pieces in an abandoned home.

Affiliated greater Cleveland activist groups relative to the anniversary rally and vigil include Imperial Women Coalition, Women's March Cleveland, the Laura Cowan Foundation, International Women's Day March Cleveland, Black Women's Army, and Black on Black Crime Inc.

Last Updated on Saturday, 08 April 2023 23:30

Imperial Women Coalition, activists, family members to host the 10-Year Anniversary of the Cleveland E 93rd St Serial Murders via a rally and vigil on March 28, 2023, 5 pm, intersection of E 93rd St and Bessemer Ave in Cleveland..By Clevelandurbannews.com

26 March 2023

Kathy

Last Updated on Friday, 31 March 2023 14:24

This year is the 5th-year anniversary of March For Our Lives: Remembering Cleveland's June 11, 2022 MFOL march, which was organized by Women's March Cleveland and drew hundreds to the steps of City Hall, including the mayor, Ohio Senator Nickie Antonio

25 March 2023

Kathy

We pause to remember the fifth-year anniversary of March For Our Lives, a national anti-gun violence youth movement. More specifically, MFOL was a student-led demonstration in support of gun control legislation. It took place in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018, with over 880 sibling events throughout the United States and around the world, and was planned by Never Again MSD in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety.The event followed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting a month earlier, which was described by several media outlets as a possible tipping point for gun control legislation Organized by national organizer David Hogg, a founding member of MFO National, there were a few protests this year including the week of March 23-25 at select state capitals such as in Florida and Michigan since Cleveland did not host a MFOL rally or march this year, below is the article on Cleveland's June 11, 2022 MFOL march (pictured above), a sister march to several that day that were sponsored by MFOL National.

BELOW IS OUR REPRINT OF OUR ARTICLE ON THE JUNE 11, 2022 MFOL MARCH IN CLEVELAND (PICTURED BELOW MARCHING FROM THE STEPS OF CITY HALL) THAT WAS ORGANIZED BY WOMEN'S MARCH CLEVELAND AND SPONSORED BY MFOL NATIONAL AND DAVID HOGG SINCE THE BELOW ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN JUNE OF 2022 THE U.S. SUPREME COURT HAS OVERTURNED ROE V WADE, THUS HANDING THE AUTHORITY OVER ABORTION LAWS TO THE RESPECTIVE STATE LEGISLATURES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Organized by Cleveland activist and organizer Kathy Wray Coleman of Women's March Cleveland and Imperial Women Coalition, and with help from activist Alfred Porter Jr of Black on Black Crime Inc., March For Our Lives Cleveland and Women's March Cleveland hosted a Saturday., June 11, 2022 noon rally and march that began with a rally on the steps of Cleveland City Hall and drew hundreds It was a local march to some 500 marches hosted to end gun violence and sponsored by March For Our Lives National, which had a march that day also that brought some 30,000 people to the nation's capital in Washington, D.C. Cleveland’s march also centered around the reproductive rights of women.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF CLEVELAND CHANNEL 5 NEWS COVERAGE AT YAHOONEWS.COM OF CLEVELAND'S JUNE 11, 2022 MARCH FOR OUR LIVES AND TO SAVE ROE EVENT, INCLUDING THE ROUSING SPEECH BY CLEVELAND MAYOR JUSTIN BIBB

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF CLEVELAND FOX8 NEWS COVERAGE OF CLEVELAND'S JUNE 11,2022 MARCH FOR OUR LIVES AND TO SAVE ROE EVENT

Mayor Justin Bibb, Cleveland's fourth Black mayor and its second youngest, was among some 20 speakers who spoke on City Hall steps, and he spoke on gun control, voting, and Roe v Wade before a jubilant crowd, Roe v Wade the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that made abortion legal nationwide and that pundits say will be overturned this summer by the nation's highest court.

"I don't know about you but I am sick and tired of being sick and tired," the mayor said to an array of applause. "Our Supreme Court is just one step away from reversing Roe v. Wade."

Cleveland's new mayor, a Democrat who won election last year with 63 percent of the vote, went on to say that he can only do only much by himself and that "we have built a movement to change this city."

After discussing the impact of the George Floyd fiasco in Cleveland and COVID-19, the mayor, 34, said that according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "gun violence is the leading cause of death of children across our country "

He concluded his speech by urging Ohioans to vote in November, and to put people in office who will do right by Cleveland.

Cleveland had the largest march in Ohio, which had marches in all of its major cities, including Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron and Toledo.

All of Cleveland's mainstream media covered the event as well as some national media like Yahoo News, as well as Clevelandurbannews.com and the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's most prominent Black print newspaper that is published in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. The PA system and music for the event were provided by Cowboy The Music Man Entertainment.

Former Ohio senator Nina Turner was also a keynote speaker and she rallied the crowd with a rousing speech on abortion access and criticism of a state legislature in Ohio that is ready to limit abortion rights for women if and when the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade this summer and relegates the authority over abortion, or the lack therof, to respective state legislatures.

Saturday's rallies and marches in Cleveland and nationwide were in response to the unprecedented gun violence as to the recent murders of 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo New York and the killings of two teachers and 19 school children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Other speakers included student activist Art McKoy Jr.,13, who talked about gun violence against young people in greater Cleveland, Ohio Senator Nickie Antonio, Democratic Lt Governor Candidate and Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Cheryl Stephens, Democratic Ohio Attorney General Nominee State Rep. Jeff Crossman, community activists Elaine Gohlstin, Delores Gray, organizer Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc., and who helped organize the event, other community activists, public school students of greater Cleveland, and educators. Black mothers who have lost sons and daughters to gun violence in the city of Cleveland also spoke.

Sandra Dawkins, the mother of 21-year-old Britany Hardwick who was shot and killed last December in her car in her boyfriend's mother's driveway in Cleveland's Collinwoold neighborhood, spoke and asked the crowd "who killed Britany?" as her daughter's killer remains at large.

County Councilwoman Stephens, also a former Cleveland Heights mayor and the first Black Democratic Lt governor nominee in Ohio history, and who is running on the ticket of gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley, a former Dayton, Ohio mayor, said that women’s rights and Civil Rights that came about under Black leaders and icons like the late Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are sorely under attack in America and that now is the time for people to rise up and fight back.

East Cleveland School Board Member Dr. Mary Rice, a former John F. Kennedy High School principal in Cleveland took on Gov Mike Dewine, who this month signed a bill into law that allows teachers and non-security personnel in Ohio to carry guns in schools with limited training, though the decision is optional to local school districts, took on Ohio's governor during her speech.

Rice said that House Bill 99 is ludicrous and that "Gov DeWine we will now allow teachers in our schools to carry guns to gun down Black children."

Affiliated greater Cleveland organizations as to Saturday's MFOL march in Cleveland include Women's March Cleveland, which was the host group, the Imperial Women Coalition, International Women's Day March Cleveland, the Musketeers Association, Together We Rise, Impact, Black on Black Crime Inc., Refusefacism Ohio, Carl Stokes Brigade, Black Women's Political Action Committee of Ohio and greater Cleveland, Brickhouse Wellness Center, Metro-Cleveland Alliance of Black School Educators and League of Women Voters Greater Cleveland Chapter.

Last Updated on Saturday, 25 March 2023 22:39

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Ohio's GOP attorney general calls for discussion on lawmakers' bill to abolish the death penalty introduced by Ohio Senator Nickie Antonio, and state Senators Huffman, Hearcel and Reynolds...Most people on death row in Ohio are Black

Once arrested in Ohio, Stormy Daniels speaks of Trump’s indictment

Activists to picket Cleveland 19 news and its reporter, WOIO reporter Kelly Kennedy, whom they say systematically excludes Black women organizers of Cleveland and Black activists from news stories she covers in a biased fashion

Imperial Women Coalition, activists, family members to host the 10-Year Anniversary of the Cleveland E 93rd St Serial Murders via a rally and vigil on March 28, 2023, 5 pm, intersection of E 93rd St and Bessemer Ave in Cleveland..By Clevelandurbannews.com

This year is the 5th-year anniversary of March For Our Lives: Remembering Cleveland's June 11, 2022 MFOL march, which was organized by Women's March Cleveland and drew hundreds to the steps of City Hall, including the mayor, Ohio Senator Nickie Antonio

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