SHOW ME THE MONEY, LARRY HOUSEHOLDER

The Ohio House finally expelled Larry Householder long after after the former House Speaker had been indicted on bribery charges involving passage of HB6.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.cleveland.com/darcy/2021/06/householder-eviction-darcy-cartoon.html]

Those who allow violent criminals the opportunity to kill, maim and rape, share the responsibility for it and the tragedy such crimes produce. More, they allow these monsters to create for all of us a world as dark and evil as their own.

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/3wrd9cs77z9g/1269/those-who-allow-violent-criminals-the-opportunity-to-kill]

http://soldierexecutionerprolifer2008.blogspot.com/2021/05/mafia-boss-giovanni-brusca-paroled-from.html

On July 21, 2020, the FBI arrested Householder and four others in connection with a $60 million bribery case involving the financial rescue of First Energy's two nuclear plants in Ohio, Davis–Besse and Perry. U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers called it "likely the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the state of Ohio". During a July 21 press briefing, DeVillers said that money from First Energy was filtered through a fake nonprofit organization to pay for bribes and evade campaign finance laws.

Following DeVillers's press conference, Republican Governor Mike DeWine asked Householder to resign. Later that day, Householder released a statement to the press saying he would not resign. The Ohio House of Representatives voted unanimously to remove Householder as Ohio House speaker on July 30, 2020.

While Householder was reelected to his seat in the Ohio House of Representatives in November 2020, the House voted on June 16, 2021 to expel him by a bipartisan vote of 75–21. 

In 2019, Larry Householder said: “I think I am probably like most Ohioans, there was a time that I was extremely supportive of the death penalty. But, as time has gone on, I have become less and less supportive because of the cost, for one. It is extremely expensive to put someone to death in lieu of keeping them in life in prison. And, also, it’s becoming more and more difficult to do an execution … we’ve gone from electrocution to lethal injection, now there are issues being raised about lethal injection. It’s just become more and more difficult to do and it’s more and more expensive.” [source: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/ohio-house-speaker-expresses-doubts-about-death-penalty-as-opioid-experts-ohio-governor-blast-call-to-use-seized-fentanyl-for-executions] 

We will post some news sources before giving our comments on Larry Householders and other politicians who make life difficult for murder victims’ families on putting a price tag on justice.

Larry Householder out: Ohio House votes to remove former speaker

Jessie Balmert Laura A. Bischoff Anna Staver

COLUMBUS – Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Ohio House removed Rep. Larry Householder from the chamber, ousting the former leader in a 75-21 vote Wednesday.

After a brilliant political comeback to lead the Ohio House of Representatives, Householder leaves his beloved chamber under the cloud of a federal indictment for the second time.

Larry Householder:A timeline deep dive inside HB 6 and the biggest government scandal in Ohio state history

Householder maintains his innocence: "They say the truth will set you free. I look forward to it."

Householder's now-former colleagues utilized a little-used provision in the Ohio Constitution that allows lawmakers to police their own for disorderly conduct. The last legislator removed in this way was Hamilton County Rep. John P. Slough in 1857 for punching another representative.

Even getting the resolution to the floor for a vote was a monumental effort that eked by with one vote. Ultimately, he was removed by 42 fellow Republicans and 33 Democrats. One Democrat, Rep. Joe Miller of Amherst, and 20 Republicans opposed the resolution.

The expulsion came after months of inaction and Householder steadfastly refusing to resign despite the pleas of top Republicans and Democrats.

"This has been going on long enough," said Rep. Mark Fraizer, R-Newark. "It is time for this to come to a conclusion."

Timeline:The rise and fall of Ohio Rep. Larry Householder

Householder, 62, of Glenford, was arrested last July in connection with the state's largest bribery scheme. Householder is accused of orchestrating a nearly $61 million operation to win control of the Ohio House, pass a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants in northern Ohio and defend that law against a ballot initiative to block it. 

Householder has pleaded not guilty to the offense. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

In a nearly two-hour hearing Tuesday, Householder fought for his political life, repeatedly asserting his innocence without going into details on the federal case against him. He repeated those assertions on the House floor. 

“I am not nor have I ever took a bribe or provided a bribe," Householder said Wednesday. “I have not nor have I ever sold legislation, never, ever.”

But Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, said the allegations against Householder – that legislation can be bought for a price in Ohio – are an embarrassment to the honor of  Ohio House. He and Fraizer sponsored House Resolution 69 to remove Householder.

“No one can believe he’s still here. Being here is a privilege, not a right," Stewart said. “The real conservatives I know don’t stand for corruption.”

Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, voted to remove Householder from office. 

"For me, the deciding factor was the unethical conduct reached such a level that a federal grand jury found that there was probable cause that it was a crime,” Cupp said. "It seems to me that clearly meets the definition in the Ohio Constitution of disorderly conduct."

Householder's expulsion lasts for the remainder of the two-year legislative session; he could run again. But Cupp said he doesn't think Householder can appeal the House's resolution.

"The law is pretty clear that this is really the final decision here," Cupp said. House Republicans will choose Householder's replacement.

  

Editorial cartoon: Ohio House Republicans and Larry Householder

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/opinion/cartoons/2021/03/18/editorial-cartoon-ohio-republicans-havent-ejected-larry-householder/4746356001/]

A House divided by Larry Householder

Householder's presence fractured an already divided House. Democrats blamed Republicans for protecting one of their own for months despite a damning indictment. Republicans were quick to point out that Householder would have never been elected speaker without the minority party's support. 

More: 'In a league of its own': Ohio is No.1 state when it comes to public corruption, experts say

Lawmakers unanimously removed Householder as their leader shortly after his arrest, but the Republican legislator has refused to resign from his seat, which represents Perry, Coshocton and Licking counties. 

Householder and his allies, most vocally Green Township Rep. Bill Seitz, argued that Householder should remain in office while the case against him is prosecuted.

"There is no evidence against Larry Householder, only allegations," Seitz said. "Serious allegations to be sure."

Householder was reelected last fall with 71% of the vote, a fact that Householder says demonstrates a vote of confidence in his representation.

"We do not get to choose who represents someone else's district," said Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Urbana, before comparing Ohio to communist countries. "We're going to kick someone out of a duly elected office because they are accused, suspected of doing something." 

However, Householder's name was the only one listed on the ballot because his arrest came after the filing deadline. Several write-in candidates had little support and little chance of winning. 

After months of waiting, Ohio lawmakers ultimately decided to expel one of their own.

"Make no mistake, there is no joy in seeing a former Ohio speaker removed from office in disgrace, but this is our opportunity to stand against corruption and to turn a page on this dark chapter in Ohio history and begin to rebuild the People’s trust in a government that’s supposed to work for them," said House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, D-Akron. She encouraged lawmakers to start over on House Bill 6 at the heart of the federal investigation. 

For Parma Rep. Jeff Crossman, who brought the Democratic resolution to remove Householder with Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, Householder's conduct met and exceeded the constitutional threshold for expulsion

"Ohioans know what is right and what is wrong," Crossman said. "They expect us to be able to tell the difference as well."

Jessie Balmert, Anna Staver and Laura Bischoff are reporters for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/16/ohio-house-could-vote-removing-former-speaker-larry-householder-office/7654580002/

    

If the death penalty was not imposed then "wrong really has finally totally triumphed over right and all civilised society, all we hold dear, is the loser."

- John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington

- John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington

Editorial: Delays deny justice for murder victim’s son

By The Canton Repository Editorial Board

Posted Aug 23, 2019 at 6:43 AM

Every adult probably can finish this legal maxim:

Justice delayed is ...

Over the past 23 months, Ohio has carried out capital punishment exactly once. Meanwhile, 137 men and one woman await execution on the state’s death row, many for decades.

Count David A. Sneed among them.

Sneed robbed and shot Herbert Rowan III, then a 26-year-old father with a young son, in the fall of 1984. After an accomplice shot Rowan a second time, they dumped his body into Nimishillen Creek.

Like others, Sneed’s execution — scheduled a year ago — has been delayed as Ohio looks for alternative measures for carrying out executions amid a federal court ruling that said the current lethal injection protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. So far, the state has been unable to secure different drugs, and conversations about a different means of execution — electrocution or firing squad —are in their infancy and likely would face their own legal challenges.

DeWine earlier this month squashed an idea put forward to use seized fentanyl — a powerful opioid painkiller deadly in even small doses — as part of a new lethal injection protocol.

Sneed now is scheduled to die Dec. 9, 2020, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. That would be more than 36 years after the murder of Herbert Rowan, whose son, Matt Rowan, expects another postponement.

“Every time I get my hopes up ... it gets pushed to the back-burner again, and it’s going to keep getting pushed back,” he told Canton Repository reporter Ed Balint in an article published Wednesday.

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder understands the frustration of people like Rowan and others losing faith in the legal system as it relates to capital punishment.

“I think I am probably like most Ohioans: There was a time that I was extremely supportive of the death penalty,” Householder said in a video of his remarks posted by the Statehouse News Bureau this week. “But, as time has gone on, I have become less and less supportive ... ”

Householder cited the cost of carrying out a death sentence — in part because of the years and years of legal appeals. According to a GateHouse Media Ohio report, studies consistently have shown defense costs, appeals and other factors makes death penalty cases much costlier — ranging to well more than $1 million dollars — than convicting and imprisoning a murderer for life.

The House speaker also mentioned the greater difficulty in carrying out the punishment because of the legal issues, which in Ohio don’t show signs of abating anytime soon.

Whatever one’s opinion about capital punishment — this Editorial Board is not unanimous on whether it should be abolished in Ohio — we all can agree there is no point in imposing a death sentence if it is going to take 36 years (or more) for the family members of a murder victim to gain that form of closure.

To us, those survivors are the ones experiencing “cruel and unusual punishment” in waiting and waiting and continually reliving their loved one’s final day while the killer’s “final day” is a constant moving target.

“I just feel like it’s about time that due process is done,” Matt Rowan said about his father’s killer. “The judge ordered it, so it should be done.”

Yes, justice delayed is justice denied. INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.cantonrep.com/opinion/20190823/editorial-delays-deny-justice-for-murder-victims-son

OUR COMMENTS:

  

The main reason is that evil is not interested in ridding the world of evil. Evil is simply interested in ignoring the problem at hand. Blame someone else by creating additional enemies to keep the sheep from paying attention to the wolves.

– Walid Shoebat [PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/k9hqv6n8kjgg/1174/the-main-reason-is-that-evil-is-not-interested-in-ridding] https://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2021/01/unit-1012-book-club-why-we-want-to-kill.html

– Walid Shoebat

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://quozio.com/quote/k9hqv6n8kjgg/1174/the-main-reason-is-that-evil-is-not-interested-in-ridding]

https://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2021/01/unit-1012-book-club-why-we-want-to-kill.html

            That quote above best describes Larry Householder. He claims that he had lost support of the death penalty because it is expensive, but he did not admit the fact that he was involved in a $60 million Ohio nuclear bribery scandal in exchange for passing a $1.3 billion bailout for the struggling nuclear power operator. He most probably was attacking the ‘costs’ of the death penalty to prevent the public from discovering his political scandal, which was more expensive than the death penalty and prisons etc.

            He does remind me of the ex-governor of Illinois, George Ryan. Where Pat Buchanan wrote:

Elected as a conservative Republican, Ryan long ago forfeited the support of Illinois conservatives. They are through with him. Power slipping away, facing possible indictment, he sold out to an establishment that alone may be able to save him from ending his days eating off plastic trays alongside the murderers he helped to evade justice. George Ryan is more pathetic than heroic.

    Whenever an Anti-Death Penalty campaigner claim that capital punishment is more expensive than LWOP, please keep in mind, they are the reason why the death penalty system is expensive. If they claim that the money saved can be used for victims’ services, why not help fight for the end of the inhumane parole. Truth is ‘expensive’ is a word use to manipulate the public in order to leave criminals unpunished. Do not be surprise, as they are also complaining that mass incarceration and victims’ rights services are also expensive and need to be abolished too.

Much of the expense results from obstruction by opponents of the death penalty. The same arguments they use against the death penalty are the same they are going to use against LWOP. If you look at another State, Nebraska, the Death Penalty Supporters were able to dispute the costs of the death penalty written by Ernie Goss. They found out that he was not honest at all.

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2016/09/nebraskans-for-death-penalty-cost-of.html

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2016/08/nebraskan-attorney-general-disputes.html

 

Study: Death penalty doesn't cost states

Published: Feb. 25, 2009 at 9:05 PM

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. states that repeal death penalty laws do not see a significant savings in trial costs, a Criminal Justice Legal Foundation study says.

The group said that in states where the death penalty is the maximum punishment, a larger number of defendants are willing to plead guilty and receive a life sentence.

"The greater cost of trials where the prosecution does seek the death penalty is offset, at least in part, by the savings from avoiding trial altogether in cases where the defendant pleads guilty," the group based in Sacramento said in a statement. "Although this effect is well known to people working in the field, there appears to be no prior study to determine the actual size of this effect."

The study -- "The Death Penalty and Plea Bargaining of Life Sentences" -- examined data gathered by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics from 33 large urban counties. The study examined how many of the murder cases were resolved by guilty plea, how many went to trial and how many resulted in a sentence of at least 20 years.

In states with the death penalty, the average county obtained sentences of 20 years or more in more than 50 percent of cases where the defendant was convicted of murder or voluntary manslaughter.

In states without the death penalty, sentences of 20 years or more were obtained in just more than 40 percent of such cases, but only 5 percent of those were guilty pleas, or just more than a quarter of the number in the death penalty states, the group said.

http://soldierexecutionerprolifer2008.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-death-penalty-expensive-no-it-isnt.html

 

            In conclusion, if Larry Householder truly cared for the murder victims and their families, he would have think of a way to fix the problem like Governor Pete Ricketts of Nebraska [http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2016/08/governor-pete-ricketts-is-our-hero.html] and stand with the victims’ families. We are glad that he has now been removed as house speaker.

 OTHER LINKS:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ohio-republicans-aim-rename-state-park-donald-trump-77194203

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scandal

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/01/george-ryan-more-pathetic-than-heroic.html

https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-regime-seizes-bank-accounts-soros-open-society-foundation.html

Plurality of PA Voters Say 'Government, Politicians' the Most Important Problem in the State

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/18/plurality-voters-government-politicians-most-important-problem-state/

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2021/04/northern-correctional-institution-to-be.html

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/10/joshua-marquis-receives-rayner-goddard.html