COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Cleveland man's death penalty case has prompted bipartisan reform, and a reignited effort to end capital punishment in Ohio.
Anthony "Tony" Apanovitch, 68, was convicted of raping and murdering nurse Mary Anne Flynn in 1984. He has sat on Death Row for decades, but his attorney said DNA evidence proves his innocence.
Prosecutors maintain that he committed the crime. The case is hotly debated and gained controversy when his conviction was overturned in 2015 and he was freed, only to be sent back to death row in 2018 due to what his advocates call a legal loophole regarding the processing of DNA.
House lawmakers are also trying to close this loophole in House Bill 221, which would expand post-conviction relief for DNA that shows actual innocence.
Facts that were left out of a press conference urging his release Tuesday were that Apanovitch was convicted of rape in 1976, which was later overturned by a court of appeals. However, he pleaded guilty to sexual battery. He was found guilty of two charges of aggravated robbery in 1977. In 1982, he pleaded guilty to breaking and entering and grand theft. These issues also led to prosecutors seeking the death penalty and putting him back on death row, according to Cuyahoga County court documents.
None of these convictions or indictments were brought up during the press conference because they shouldn't have been a determining factor in his guilt, a spokesperson for the event said.
Watch News 5's report from 2015 when his conviction was overturned:
But the doubt on whether he did the crime in 1984 is one of the reasons why state Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) has introduced H.B. 259, which would abolish the death penalty in Ohio.
Schmidt and cosponsor state Rep. Adam Miller (D-Columbus) had their first hearing on the bill Wednesday morning.
"There are so many reasons to end the death penalty: cost, doesn't deter crime, human element and we might get it wrong," Schmidt said.
There have been 11 death row exonerees. Fifty-six people in Ohio have been executed by the state since 1981, meaning for every five executions that have taken place, one person has been exonerated.
It also disproportionately impacts people of color. Capital defendants charged with killing a white victim in Ohio are twice as likely to receive a death sentence as those charged with killing a Black person, Ohioans To Stop Executions found.
Plus, it is incredibly expensive for the state. Ohio hasn't executed anyone since 2018, but it costs us hundreds of millions, according to data from the nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission.
RELATED: The death penalty costs Ohio hundreds of millions of dollars. It hasn’t been used in years
Capital punishment is rarely used, Lou Tobin with the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association argued, especially since the state doesn't currently have access to lethal injection drugs.
"The way that the death penalty is used today is used almost solely for multiple murders and for the murders or other crimes against young children," Tobin said.
Some families want to have it as an option, knowing the person who hurt their loved one is dead, he said.
RELATED: With one man’s execution in limbo, victims' families divided about death penalty in Ohio
"If there's no death penalty, there isn't justice for them," the attorney said.
Even for supporters, Schmidt said they won't get justice in the current system.
The average number of days on death row is 7,592.30, which is 20.78 years, a report from the Attorney General's office found. The average time on death row for a person executed is 6,280 days, which is 17.19 years. Many of the individuals die naturally before execution.
"Institutional confinement for the rest of a life is a just punishment," Schmidt said.
The executions should be used sparingly, but lawmakers shouldn't take away the option entirely, Tobin said. Something both sides can agree on is the justice system needs to move more quickly.
This shouldn't be handled by legislation, he added. If the lawmakers truly believe that the public would want this, they should put it on the ballot and have Ohioans vote.
Lawmakers have been trying to repeal the death penalty for 12 years now, but they face an uphill battle because Statehouse leaders in neither chamber support the legislation.
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