Tue 3/5 @ 11:30PM
Too often in areas with a heavy political lean, whether Democratic or Republican, officeholders don’t get a challenge either in the primary or the general election. But current county prosecutor Michael O’Malley took office in 2017 after mounting a 2016 primary challenge to Tim McGinty who had infuriated many people when he broke protocol to essentially act in defense of Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmack when a grand jury considered whether to indict them for the unprovoked killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in November 2014. McGinty appeared to think, as one expert testified, that the killing was “objectively reasonable.”
And now, this year, 32-year-old Matthew Ahn, a former public defender who teaches at the Cleveland State University School of Law, decided to challenge O’Malley in the March 19 Democratic primary (in Cuyahoga County, that’s equivalent to the general election), saying that every officeholder should be held accountable with a challenge. He’s accused O’Malley of invoking the death penalty too often and referring too many youth offenders to the adult courts. But crime is a concern to many citizens (even if much of that concern is exaggerated) and they differ on how to address this hot-button issue, balancing crime prevention with the rights of the accused.
The two will be making the cases for their approaches at a forum at the City Club on Tuesday March 5, as early voting for the March 19 primary has already started. Nick Castele from nonprofit newsroom Signal Cleveland moderates. The forum is sold out but it will be livestreamed at the City Club’s website. You can tweet questions to @TheCityClub or text 330-541-5794.
cityclub.org/the-primary-contest-for-cuyahoga-county-prosecutor
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Cleveland, OH 44115