By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Butler County leads the region in the number of pending murder cases in which an accused killer could face death.

Five men, including one whose case goes to trial today, remain jailed in Butler capital-punishment cases.

"For a county of that size, that's pretty active," said Ohio Public Defender David Bodiker.

Seven other counties in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky each have two or fewer death-penalty cases pending, including Hamilton County - despite having sent more killers to death row than any other Ohio county.

"For many years, Cincinnati led the free world in (death-penalty) indictments. But in the past several years, they've only had a few," Bodiker said.

On Tuesday, William Zuern, 45, convicted of killing a Hamilton County jailer 20 years ago, is set to die by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

One reason for the increase in Butler Counter, Bodiker said, is that the area has been hit with a string of "very, very gruesome, strange sorts of homicides" that could fit legal criteria for prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Of Butler County's pending cases: Two involve double homicides; one victim was stabbed dozens of times during a robbery; another victim was dismembered; and another was shot execution-style.

Ohio law specifies circumstances that can carry the death penalty, including murder-for-hire, multiple slayings, homicides of victims under age 13, and killings during certain other felonies. But, Bodiker said, "Indictments in capital cases have more to do with the attitude of the prosecutor than they do with the number of homicides."

Robin Piper, prosecutor in Butler County, said: "Some murderers forfeit their right to exist because their crimes are so heinous ... If you don't like the death penalty, then get the law changed - and I won't seek it anymore."

Since Piper took office in 2001, Butler grand juries have returned 12 death-penalty indictments, nearly twice as many as in 1998-2000.

"These violent, horrific deaths cause such trauma and devastation," Piper said. "When you see this up close, you can't help but go for the death penalty when it's appropriate."

Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said most of his county's recent killings have been "your basic drug-dealer-shoots-drug-dealer - and that's not eligible for the death penalty."

What families want

While Piper said victims' families usually ask him to seek the death penalty, Allen said he has received emotional pleas from families who urge him to avoid seeking execution because they want to avoid feeling re-victimized during years of appeals.

A change in state law several years ago gives juries and judges the option to sentence convicted killers to stay in prison without possibility of parole.

Allen thinks the life-without-parole option has made it harder to persuade some jurors to recommend death sentences. Earlier this year, a Hamilton County jury spared the life of Eric Robinson, 34, after he was convicted of beating an elderly man to death. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Among seven completed capital cases in Butler County since 2001, only Donald J. Ketterer is on death row. A three-judge panel condemned him after he pleaded guilty in the death of an elderly man who was beaten with a skillet and stabbed with knives, forks and scissors. Two other Butler County killers are serving life imprisonment without parole. Four others pleaded guilty and are serving parole-eligible sentences.

Many jurors are reluctant to pass death sentences, Bodiker said, after hearing about cases in which DNA tests have freed innocent people, or about cases in which authorities lied, bent the rules or hid evidence.

Bodiker also thinks more people are becoming aware that capital cases tie up the system and are costly.

Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel, whose county currently has no pending capital-punishment cases, says such cases "probably triple the amount of work."

This year, Butler County budgeted $67,000 for the prosecution of capital cases. But with five cases pending, county commissioners set aside an additional $150,000.

Piper said he doesn't like the price tag.

"But I'm not going to short-change the administration of justice because someone's worried about how much it's going to cost," he said.

"People talk about Texas being a tough place for death-penalty cases, and Georgia," said Noah Powers, a Middletown lawyer. "I put Butler County right up with the rest of them. It's not that I advocate against the death penalty. I just think you have to be choosy about what cases are indicted as death penalty cases."

Pending death-penalty cases in Butler County

• Jason Sam Campbell, 22, formerly of Middletown, is accused of killing Donald Riley, 44, and his wife, Helen, 55, in their Hamilton home on Feb. 23, 2003, hours after he escaped from a low-security Warren County lockup. Riley had been beaten and strangled; his wife bled to death from multiple knife wounds. Campbell fled to Florida, authorities say, where he was captured six months after the slayings. His trial begins today.

• Tom West, 50, described as a drifter who stayed in the Chicago and Las Vegas areas, is accused of a Nov. 6 shooting rampage at a West Chester Township trucking company. West faces two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Donald Haury, 50, of Beavercreek, and Bob Lines, 65, of Springfield Township; and four counts of attempted aggravated murder. A July 19 trial date is set but a judge first must determine whether he is competent to stand trial.

• Cardale A. Goens, 36, of Hamilton, is accused of shooting his friend, Jeffrey Glenn Watson, 41, of Hamilton, to death and mutilating the victim's remains with the help of two accomplices who face lesser charges. Watson's burned torso was found New Year's Eve near a Milford Township cornfield. No trial date has been set.

• Craig R. Anderson, 36, of Liberty Township, is accused in what authorities say was an "execution-style" shooting of Chad Re, a 25-year-old mortgage broker also of Liberty Township. Four others face charges alleging they helped with the crime or its subsequent cover-up. Police found Re sitting alone in his car in Monroe, suffering from a gunshot wound to the head on May 11. Re died the next day. No trial date for Anderson has been set.

• Richard W. Miller, 20, of Hamilton, was indicted last month in the 2002 stabbing of Paul W. Brown, 33, of Hamilton, following more than two years of police investigation. No trial date has been set.

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E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com