Diane Menashe Mentioned in Court News Ohio: "Striving Toward Justice with Data"

Ice Miller partner Diane Menashe was mentioned in the Court News Ohio article, "Striving Toward Justice with Data."

The article included:

Information about sentencing practices can be uncovered, but it happens through isolated, individual efforts, rather than in an open, centralized system. Columbus lawyer Diane Menashe told Justice Donnelly about an involuntary manslaughter case she handled. Menashe spoke about the case at a Columbus Metropolitan Club forum. Her client faced a sentence of 13 years, proposed by the prosecutors, based on a law that allows a conviction for involuntary manslaughter when a person gives heroin to someone, who then uses the drug and dies.

Menashe thought the suggested sentence was extreme for her client, who had no criminal record, had several mitigating circumstances, and had given the drugs to a friend. Menashe wondered how sentences overall had been dispensed on this charge. She started digging for data on every involuntary manslaughter charge in Franklin County that was pled out based on the same statute. She discovered – after 39.4 hours – that the average sentence for defendants in the same circumstances was four years. She presented the information to the judge, who was persuaded by the data, and sentenced the defendant to just under five years.

Menashe, who works as the pro bono director at a large firm, asked, though, “Who has 39 hours to give to a case?”

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