The Crime & Punishment Home Page

Martin Frantz Prosecuting Attorney Managing Editor

John M. Williams Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Publisher and Contributing Editor

Jocelyn Stefancin Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Contributing Editor

The History

The Publication

The Disclaimer

Selected Articles Links of Interest

THE HISTORY

Wayne County, Ohio, is a rural county with approximately 100,000 residents. Although we are home to several nationally known companies, our primary industry is agriculture, and our Amish population is one of the largest in the world.

The Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney's Office is not unlike the population of Wayne County. We are modest in number but practical and diligent in our endeavors. We presently employ two misdemeanor prosecutors, two juvenile prosecutors, a child support prosecutor, two felony prosecutors, and the elected prosecuting attorney who handles most of our civil law duties. I am one of the felony prosecutors.

In the summer of 1995, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 2, a comprehensive act which totally redesigned Ohio's felony sentencing structure. Law enforcement officers and public officials needed to know about these changes, and being a small county, we knew that much of the responsibility would fall upon us. But how could we do that efficiently?

I discussed the issue with Martin Frantz, the senior felony prosecutor*, and we decided to publish a newsletter. We vowed that this newsletter would be more than just a brief discussion of the new sentencing law; it had to be a continuing publication addressing the many legal issues affecting law enforcement officers and public officials. Thus, on September 18, 1995, Crime & Punishment was born.

* Frantz has since taken office as the elected Prosecuting Attorney.

THE PUBLICATION

Crime & Punishment was designed using Lotus AmiPro V3.1. It is published monthly and distributed to all law enforcement agencies, our statutory clients, and numerous public officials in our county.

The format is a single page, containing one or two articles, always supplemented with an interesting graphic, and sometimes containing charts, tables and "boxed" commentaries. Although the single-page format requires fairly small print, it allows the publication to be posted on a bulletin board where all interested officers and employees can read it. The selected articles published on the World Wide Web contain the text of the original publication, and readers using graphical web browsers will be able to view some of the graphics, charts and tables. Whenever feasible, and if time permits, alternative documents will be added which are fully compatible with text-based browsers.

THE DISCLAIMER

After all, we are attorneys, so you should have expected this. The opinions expressed in Crime & Punishment are solely those of its publisher, editors and authors. It is not intended as a legal treatise, and it should not be relied upon as a detailed exposition of prevailing law. Anyone who wishes to rely upon the legal principles expressed in this publication should review the applicable law and seek competent legal counsel. Finally, no portion of this publication may be reproduced or distributed without our prior written consent.