COLUMBUS — Surrounded by people wearing shirts advocating for the abolishment of Ohio’s death penalty, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins became animated in talking about Trumbull County death row inmate Stanley Adams last week before the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Stanley Adams … last month, for a second time, was scheduled for execution,” Watkins said of an execution now pushed back to Feb. 16, 2028.

“I see that little girl right now, and her mother. And I also know from another prosecutor team that prosecuted Adams for raping and killing another woman, he is beyond all human doubt guilty of the most heinous crimes against women and children. And I did not see in Trumbull County for that case, or any other case, Project Innocence come in and say, ‘We got the wrong person,'” Watkins said.

Adams got the death penalty for killing Esther Cook, 43, and her 12-year-old daughter, Ashley Cook, on Oct. 11, 1999, in their Warren home during a burglary, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Adams also killed Roslyn Taylor in early August 1999, about nine weeks before the Cook murders. Adams got 15 years to life in the Taylor killing. Taylor’s body was found Aug. 6, 1999, in a burned car in Hubbard Township not far from where she was living, according to the prosecutor’s office and appeals court documents.

“There is good reason to have the death penalty in this state,” Watkins said. “And this state needs to have a big stick for the worst of the worst.” He noted later, “There are certain things that are so bad, so evil, if we know it, we’ve got to do something about it.”

He said, “One of the fundamental policies that I believe we must follow is to understand the importance of holding people accountable for the most serious offenses.”

Attorney Lynn Maro, who was elected Mahoning County prosecutor in the Nov. 5 election, said the “2023 annual Capital Crimes Report issued by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost concluded that Ohio’s capital punishment system is ‘enormously expensive’ and ‘broken.’

“The report highlights numerous problems with how Ohio’s death penalty is being implemented. While Senate Bill 101 has been pending since March 2023, nothing has been done to address AG Yost’s concerns.

“Reform is needed so that the death penalty is utilized for the “worst of the worst” offenders and that it is not arbitrarily applied. As Mahoning County’s next prosecutor, I intend to follow the law and, if Ohio has a death penalty, utilize it when appropriate.”

Maro is a longtime defense attorney who has represented defendants in Mahoning, Trumbull and other counties. She also worked in the civil division of the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office from October 1992 to June 1996.

Watkins said the death penalty should remain in Ohio’s “arsenal unless the citizens of Ohio vote” to remove it.” The last execution carried out by the state was in July 2018, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

“I’m from Trumbull County. I’ve had a lot of jurors who have convicted the most heinous criminals that one can imagine,” he said. “These folks, who commit crimes against humanity, and they are accorded fair trials, appeals and the constitutionality is determined by the highest courts, the law should be carried out.”

Watkins, who is the longest-serving prosecutor in the state, asked, “Do you remember the Oklahoma (City) bomber that killed 168 people and injured 800? He went through a court system with Democrats and Republicans but most importantly Americans, and he was executed in 2001,” Watkins said.

“But I would hate to be in the State of Ohio, where we have these heinous crimes committed and there isn’t the ultimate penalty,” he said.

He turned to the right, where people wearing abolish-the-death-penalty shirts sat nearby and said, “I understand that there are people for personal, religious reasons, and I respect you, that oppose the death penalty.”

He said sometimes potential jurors with those views are questioned and say they can’t support the death penalty. A judge will disqualify them from serving on a death-penalty case “if you can’t follow the law.”

He said, “I believe I am in the majority. I think the (death penalty) law should be maintained. We can reform the law, but don’t eliminate the law, And don’t take the voice of the people when you’re going to take something that has been in existence since the beginning of Ohio and has meaning to so many.”

Watkins’ testimony was given on behalf of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association in response to Senate Bill 101, which was introduced in the spring of 2023 and would abolish the death penalty.

The ACLU of Ohio website says it continues to advocate for abolition of the death penalty in Ohio, calling it “an expensive, ineffective, racist, and arbitrary system that puts innocent lives at risk.”

State Sen. Steve Huffman, a Republican from Tipp City, was among the sponsors of S.B. 101, saying “There should be one being that decides whether you live or die and that’s the Lord.”