This story contains details that may be disturbing and distressing to some viewers and readers.
A best friend of murder victims is urging Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to allow the death penalty as he continues his unofficial moratorium on lethal injection.
“We have photos and then we have their ashes – that’s why we have to share our Christmas,” Rhonda Whitelock said.
In December, Whitelock only wants justice for her best friend, Suzanne Taylor.
“It’s emotionally difficult for the survivors, knowing that this man is still alive,” she said.
Justice for her is the death penalty for George Brinkman Jr., Whitelock said. He pleaded guilty to murdering Taylor, 45, and her two daughters in North Royalton in 2017. The details of this case are crucial to the public, Whitelock said.
Brinkman took the family of three hostage and then slit Taylor’s throat in front of her children. He then strangled 21-year-old Taylor Pifer with a pillow and strangled 18-year-old Kylie Pifer with a telephone cord.
After Brinkman killed the family of three, he drove to Stark County and shot and killed elderly couple Rogell and Roberta John.
However, years pass and the mad murderer is still on death row.
“Every day I go to work and pay Mr. George Brinkman for medicine to enable me to live a decent life while my friend, my best friend, and my sister are gone,” she continued.
Taylor’s daughters, her “nieces”, do not grow up and become the fashion designers or investigators they wanted to be. But Brinkman can sit in jail and watch TV, she said.
There has been a lull in the utilize of the death penalty in Ohio since Governor Mike DeWine took office.
In 2020, DeWine announced lethal injection “no longer an option” citing a federal judge’s ruling that the protocol could cause prisoners “serious pain and unnecessary suffering.”
During a closed breakfast on Thursday, he told reporters that no other death penalty would be carried out under his administration.
“We won’t do this while I’m governor,” DeWine said.
Last year, Whitelock wrote to DeWine, begging him to understand her side.
“Maybe Governor DeWine should look at the photos of what this maniac did to my friend and her children because he doesn’t deserve to live,” Whitelock said. “If something like this happened to his family, I’m here to tell you he wouldn’t want that animal to live.”
But DeWine is not alone in his anti-death penalty beliefs.
“I would like us to end the death penalty in the state of Ohio,” said Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood). “If we could do it in a lame duck, that would be great.”
Antonio and a growing bipartisan group of lawmakers say the punishment lengthens the legal process for victims’ families, causing them to go to court on appeals year after year.
That’s one of the reasons she and state Sen. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) introduced themselves Senate Bill 101which would abolish the penalty. The bill was considered this week during the lame duck session.
It also disproportionately affects people of color. D.C. defendants accused of killing a white victim in Ohio are twice as likely to receive a death sentence than those accused of killing a black person, Ohioans have been found who want to stop executions.
Moreover, it is extremely pricey for the state.
“As a Republican and a fiscal conservative, if you wanted to save money, say $20-30 million a year, you would vote to abolish the death penalty,” Huffman said in 2023.
Huffman explained that the 128 people currently on death row add up. Costs to the state range from $128 million to $384 million, according to the nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission.
He said the death penalty was against his principles not only because of the costs.
“I think my basic doctrine of the Catholic faith is that there should be one being who decides whether we live or die, and that is the Lord,” he added.
Antonio and other death penalty supporters raise the issue that the wrong person may be sentenced because 11 people sentenced to death in Ohio have been acquitted.
Over the past 40 years, the state has executed fifty-six people in Ohio, which means that for every five executions carried out, one person was exonerated.
“This margin of error deprives innocent people of years of life and wasted time outside of prison,” Antonio said in SB 101 testimony.
But Whitelock argues that since Brinkman pleaded guilty, there is no doubt. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in September 2026, while DeWine is still in power. But his potential predecessor could change that.
“There are some crimes so heinous, so contrary to basic humanity, that they deserve the ultimate punishment,” Attorney General Dave Yost said in January.
Yoyo has almost officially announced that he will run for governor. He has been pushing for years to speed up the process. In early 2024, he promoted modern regulations regarding the utilize of nitrogen gas in capital punishment.
In a November interview, Yost seemed to suggest that DeWine could execute him if he wanted to.
“Drug manufacturers are basically blackmailing the state and saying, ‘If you utilize our drugs for the death penalty, we won’t sell you anything for any other reason.’ Well, obviously the state buys a whole lot of drugs for a lot of different purposes…” Yost said. “I think if the governor had called their bluff, they would probably still be selling other drugs as well.”
Yost will likely face Lt. Gov. Jon Husted in the governor’s race. Husted’s team did not respond to comment on his view on the death penalty.
We asked Yost’s campaign team whether speeding up executions would be a priority if he is elected governor.
“Ohio’s death penalty system is broken and the promise of justice is broken,” said Yost campaign spokeswoman Amy Natoce. “Fixing this – and keeping his promises to victims and juries – will be a top priority for General Yost.”
Whitelock has stated that she wants “tough on crime” politicians and would like to see DeWine have an actual dialogue with her. Still, she was glad to hear Yost’s point of view.
“I hope that one day this will change and [Brinkman] will go to death row because I will – no matter how elderly I am or where I am – I will drag myself there to see it,” she said.
Senate President Matt Huffman said the bill likely wouldn’t pass this year, but the governor added he would have more to say about the death penalty in the coming months.
“Every day it’s very, very hard to go through this and it never goes away,” Whitelock said with tears in her eyes. “Put yourself in our shoes; I will never forgive what he did.”
This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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