The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area Arizona and South Dakota. Finally, Georgia and Virginia executed one inmate each.112 International Safeguards Amnesty, pardon and commutation The Governor of Ohio granted two commutations in the reporting period, one to John Jeffrey Eley, on 10 July 2012,113 and the other to Ronald Post, on 17 December 2012.114 The Governor cited ineffective legal counsel in both cases and, in his statement following Post’s commutation, stated the necessity of effective defense, especially in death penalty cases. With regard to Eley, the Governnor also cited his limited mental capacity and the fact that he acted under the direction of another person, and questioned whether Eley would have committed the act if those factors had not been involved. Fair Trial Guarantees In June 2013, the Governor of Florida signed the Timely Justice Act.115 The Act requires the Governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of the conclusion of clemency review and schedule the execution within 180 days of the issuance of the warrant. The Act is the first of its kind in the United States.116 On 26 June 2013, the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, a state agency that represents death row inmates during post-conviction proceedings, filed a lawsuit with Florida’s Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the Act. The petitioners claim that the 112  Ibid. 113  “Kasich Commutes Sentence Of John Jeffrey Eley”, Official Website of Governor of Ohio, 10 July 2012, <http://www.governor.ohio.gov/Portals/0/07.10.12,%20Kasich%20Commutes%20Sentence%20of%20John%20 Jeffrey%20Eley.pdf>. 114  “Kasich Commutes Sentence Of Ronald Post”, Official Website of Governor of Ohio, 17 December 2012, <http://www.governor.ohio.gov/Portals/0/pdf/12.17.12PostCommutation.pdf>. 115  “Florida Accelerates Death Penalty Process with “Timely Justice Act”, American Bar Association, 2013, <http://www.americanbar.org/publications/project_press/2013/summer/f lorida-accelerates-death-penalty-process-with-timely-justice-ac.html>. 116  Ibid. 27

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