Ohio: Eleventh-Hour Clemency

Richard Celeste has worked to improve the lot of battered women for much of his public career -- even turning his former home into a shelter for them. Last week, in a dramatic final act before relinquishing the Ohio governorship, he granted clemency to 25 abused women convicted of killing or assaulting their mates. The move, the first such mass commutation in the nation, was hailed by women's rights groups as a major victory in the fight to treat violence-prone battered women as victims, not criminals. But many prosecutors charged that the action would encourage more abused women to resort to violence.

Celeste's order comes on the heels of a March state supreme court decision and the passage of a new law that -- like laws of most other states -- recognizes the "battered woman syndrome" as a legal defense. The Governor reviewed the cases of 105 women who had not been allowed to use that defense before the new Ohio rules went into effect. He freed 21 who had already spent two years behind bars and said four others could leave after completing two years. He ordered all of them to perform 200 hours of community service.