Ohio Supreme Court race 2024: Who is Justice Joe Deters?

In January 2023, Cincinnati Republican Joe Deters traded his long-time job as Hamilton County prosecutor for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court but rather than run to hold the seat the governor appointed him to, Deters is challenging a colleague.

Deters opted to run for a full six-year term against Justice Melody Stewart, a Cleveland Democrat. Stewart is irritated but Deters is amused.

More: Ohio Supreme Court election has 6 candidates running for 3 seats

"I think it's kind of funny because somebody's going to run against her. I don't know what they were thinking. Somebody was going to run," he said. Had Deters run for his appointed seat, he would've had to run statewide again in two years when the unexpired term ended.

Despite this intra-court race, Deters said the justices are professional and collegial and have made him feel welcome in the new job.

Deters became the first Ohio Supreme Court justice in 30 years to join the court without prior experience as a judge.

"I bring a prosecutor's perspective to the court, and I think a trial lawyer's perspective," Deters said. "There may be people on the court that had trials before but if you combined everybody's trial experience, I think I still have more than all of them combined."

Party labels for some judicial candidates

A new state law adds party label to candidates for appellate and supreme courts. That is expected to work in Deters' favor this year with former President Donald Trump, who twice won Ohio, at the top of the Republican ticket.

Many Republicans see adding party labels as a means to give voters more information about candidates. Democrats say judicial races should be nonpartisan and doing otherwise erodes public trust in the judicial branch.

Deters calls party labels in judicial races "very problematic" because it doesn't give voters enough information about the candidates.

Republicans, who now hold four of the seven seats on the court, have controlled a majority of seats since 1986.

Who is Joe Deters?

Deters' roots are firmly planted in his hometown of Cincinnati. Deters earned undergraduate and law degrees from University of Cincinnati, became the longest serving elected prosecutor in Hamilton County history and married long-time WCPO evening news anchor Tanya O'Rourke.

While most of his career has been as a county prosecutor, Deters won two statewide campaigns for state treasurer in 1998 and 2002.

In 2004, Deters' chief of staff Matt Borges and campaign fundraiser Eric Sagun were investigated for funneling contributions to Deters' campaign from donors seeking to do business with the treasurer's office. The two men pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges connected to the bribery investigation and were fined. Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to determine whether Deters knew of any criminal conduct.

Deters resigned as treasurer in January 2005 to return to the prosecutor's job.

Nearly two decades later, Deters said a crime-and-punishment issue piqued his interest in being on the court. In a 4-3 decision issued in January 2022, the court said that excessive bail is unconstitutional, and judges should only consider a defendant's flight risk when establishing bail. Courts have long had the option of holding a hearing on whether to deny bail.

Deters joined other Republicans in campaigning for a constitutional amendment to require judges to consider public safety when setting bail. Voters endorsed it in November 2022.

Just months later, the governor appointed him to the court. The friendship between the DeWine and Deters families stretches back at least 30 years by some accounts .

The governor appointed Dennis Deters to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. And as prosecutor, Joe Deters hired Justice Pat DeWine's senior staff attorney, Mary Stier, as an assistant prosecutor in the appellate division.

Stier and Justice DeWine are currently in a relationship. Stier is Deters' senior judicial attorney at the Supreme Court.

When asked about how his connections to the DeWine family helped him win the Supreme Court appointment, Deters said "I don't think Mike DeWine would have appointed me if he didn't think I was competent to handle the job."

Deters said the biggest adjustment to the job has been abiding by judicial ethics rules that curtail what he's allowed to say.

"When I was prosecutor, I could shoot my mouth off all the time and now I can't do anything. All I do is yell at the TV every night," he said.

Abortion cases

Abortion cases are more likely to find their way to the Ohio Supreme Court now that the Dobbs ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court said abortion restrictions are up to states to decide. Likewise, Ohio voters in 2023 approved a constitutional amendment covering reproductive rights. So, any legal questions regarding how that amendment should be interpreted and applied will likely be decided by the Ohio Supreme Court.

The Democrats running for the Supreme Court are endorsed by Planned Parenthood while the Republicans are backed by Ohio Right to Life .

All six candidates said they pledge to follow the constitution and law.

Criminal sentencing database

The Ohio Sentencing Commission scrapped a contract it held with University of Cincinnati that aimed to get judges to use the same form for writing their criminal sentencing decisions. Ultimately, the goal was to create a database of criminal sentencing decisions so that the courts and researchers could identify trends, biases and areas for improvement.

Some judges didn't like the idea of a searchable database and raised questions about how the data would be used. The commission, which is chaired by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, is now deciding its next steps.

Deters said a criminal sentencing database is worthwhile but he's not sure how to accomplish it. He noted that voters elect county judges, whose decisions reflect community standards in those counties.

"There are some people that think that every county should treat every offense the same way. That's not necessarily the case," he said.

How did Deters rule on key cases?

Reagan Tokes : Deters wrote the court decision that upheld a 2019 state law named after Reagan Tokes , an Ohio State University student who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 2017 by a man who had been released from prison. The law allows the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to hold some people in prison longer for bad behavior without the involvement of the sentencing judge. Deters called it his most significant opinion in his 18 months on the bench. Stewart joined Deters' opinion.

Boneless Chicken Wings : A man seriously injured by a bone embedded in his "boneless" wings sued but wasn't allowed to have his case heard by a jury. Deters wrote the majority opinion said the customer should expect to find bones in a boneless wings order because chickens have bones. The court said the lawsuit was properly dismissed. Stewart joined the dissent.

Open records : In January, the court ruled 4-3 that expense records for state troopers to accompany Gov. Mike DeWine to the 2020 Super Bowl were exempt from disclosure under Ohio's open records law. Deters and Stewart were on opposite sides of the decision.

In a 5-2 decision released in April, the court said names and addresses contained in a state database of people who died are not subject to disclosure under the state's open records laws. Justices decided that particular information is protected health info. Deters and Stewart were both in the majority.

Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Supreme Court race 2024: Who is Justice Joe Deters?