Two
Ohio civil rights organizations have filed suit against the state’s parole board, alleging that the board has an illegal policy of automatically denying parole to anyone who was formerly sentenced to death.
On July 28, 2021, the
American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the
Ohio Justice & Policy Center sued the Ohio Parole Board on behalf of
Patricia Wernert and
George Clayton (pictured), both of whom were sentenced to death under a law that was declared unconstitutional in 1978. Neither Wernert nor Clayton committed the murders for which they were sentenced to death. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Ohio’s death-sentencing statute in