An Associated Press analysis of the 334 capital indictments filed in Franklin County, Ohio, found that only 16 (5%) of the cases ended with a death sentence. Of those sentences, two have been reduced to life in prison without parole, one man died on the row, and two men were executed this year. Research shows that of the remaining Franklin County cases, 183 cases (55%) ended in plea agreements, and in 111 cases (33%) juries or three-judge panels convicted the offenders but did not sentence them to death. In 45 of those 111 cases, offenders were convicted of lesser charges, and in the remaining 44 cases that went to trial, the juries convicted the offenders of crimes that carried the death penalty but chose prison terms instead. According to Ohio State University Professor Doug Berman, the death penalty “remains a relatively rarely used sanction” in Ohio and to the average prosecutor “it’s a mechanism that allows them to enter plea negotiations in a stronger position.” According to prosecutor Ron O’Brien, a change in state law that guaranteed life without parole in capital cases has been a factor in plea negotiations. (Associated Press, April 6, 2004) See Life Without Parole.