The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday about Marsy's Law, which shields names of law enforcement officers from public disclosure if they are deemed a victim of a crime.
The Columbus Dispatch is suing to release the names of officers who responded to a Hilliard bank robbery last year. Four of their names were kept confidential by the city under Marsy's Law. The law was passed as a constitutional amendment by voters in 2017 applying broad protections to victims of crime.
One officer was shot by the suspect during a shootout on I-70 after the bank robbery. The officer survived his injuries, while the suspect was shot and killed by officers.
The Columbus Dispatch sued the Columbus Division of Police in October 2023 to release the names of all of the officers involved in the shooting.
Most of the debate revolved around whether or not police are exempt from the protections Marsy's Law provides to victims of crime. Justice Patrick Fischer and the state's attorney Jana Bosch, the Ohio Deputy Solicitor General, illustrated the debate in an exchange during the arguments.
Fischer was quick to ask questions of Bosch and the Columbus Dispatch's attorney Jack Greiner, interrupting both just as they started their arguments.
"They walk to the crime. They go to the crime... to get shot at, maybe," Fischer said.
"It is true that they often put themselves in harm's way to serve the public," Bosch responded. "But that doesn't change their status as a person, and it doesn't change anything about the text of Marsy's Law."
Fischer interrupted Greiner earlier to ask him, "does it matter who shot first? If someone shoots at you, aren't you a victim?"
"Carrying a gun, acting in the official capacity as agents of the state, as state actors, (police officers) come to that scene in furtherance of that position, then I do not think that it matters if the suspect shoots first or if they shoot first," Greiner responded.
Police departments around the state have followed the Columbus Division of Police's lead since July 2023 in applying Marsy's Law in this way.
Blendon Township Police shot and killed 21-year-old pregnant shoplifting suspect Ta'Kiya Young in 2023. Connor Grubb, the officer who blocked the path of Ta'Kiya Young's vehicle and fatally shot her, and a second officer who was standing next to the vehicle were not initially identified after the shooting. Grubb was identified by the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office after he was indicted last year on charges of murder, felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter. Grubb is set to stand trial in July. The second officer involved in Young's case still has not been identified.
The police agencies maintained the officers are crime victims, and thus their identities are protected by Marsy’s Law.
Greiner argued that police are a "different animal" because they are state actors when they show up to the scene of a crime, making them exempt from the protections Marsy's Law provides to crime victims.
"The idea of police who are operating as an arm of the state who come on the scene to effect an outcome at that scene, I don't think that in the common understanding of victim that a voter would have contemplated that," Greiner said.
Greiner pointed out for officer-involved shootings specifically that ordinary people who die or suffer grievous bodily harm get their injuries redacted from body camera video, unless the grievous bodily harm or death was affected by the police operating as an agent of the state.
When pressed by the justices, Greiner specified that on-duty police can be victims in some circumstances. He gave an example of a police officer being rear-ended by a drunk driver.
Greiner then tried to reign it back in, saying he was arguing for this specific case of the officers in the shootout on I-70. Justice Pat DeWine quickly rebutted Greiner.
"We're going to decide this case and whatever rule we write is going to apply to all cases," Greiner said.
Greiner argued the justices could write a narrow enough rule that only applies to this case.
Bosch's argument on behalf of the state and the city of Columbus centered around the definitions in Marsy's Law of a victim and that police qualify as a victim under this statute, because they qualify as a "person" under Ohio law.
"Officers do take up the state's authority when they act on its behalf, but just like any agent-principle relationship, they don't become that principle. They don't become the state. It's not possible to shed personhood when acting on behalf of the state," Bosch said.
Bosch said Marsy's law is very clear in what it defines a victim as. The law states that a victim is a person who's targeted or harmed by a crime.
"When (a police officer) takes off his badge, he doesn't take off the bullet wounds and go home. He is a person who's exercising the authority of the state," Bosch said.
The Ohio Supreme Court could issue a ruling on this case in the next several months.
The Florida Supreme Court faced this same question last year and ruled 6-0 that the Sunshine State's version of Marsy's Law should not shield officers identities from public disclosure.
