2nd Ohio Killer Gets Death Sentence

An Ohio jury deliberated for only 5½ hours earlier this year to recommend the death sentence for riot leader Carlos Sanders, the inmate who played a major role in the murder of CO Robert Vallandingham during the prison riot on Easter Sunday, 1993.

At that time, more than 400 inmates went berserk in the state's only maximum security prison, seizing hostages and taking control of an entire complex at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. One corrections officer and nine inmates were killed by the rampaging inmates before the riot was brought under control—eleven days after it erupted.

After the verdict was rendered, the union took out a full page ad in the local newspaper honoring the memory of Vallandingham who was a steward and member of AFSCME/OCSEA Local 11. Vallandingham's death sparked a campaign for reform in Ohio's prisons. The union succeeded in getting more officers hired, a promise to build prisons with stronger construction materials and increased staff training.

News From ACU reported on the death sentence for another CO killer in a 1995 issue.