Source: ohiocapitaljournal.com 10/20/25
David Stebbins, a former federal public defender who played a prominent role in many Ohio death-penalty cases, died by suicide on Oct. 2, according to records in the office of Franklin County Coroner Nathaniel Overmire.
Stebbins was arrested in late September on charges of pandering child pornography, according to records at the Franklin County Clerk’s office.
Stebbins, 77, had represented many clients on Ohio’s death row, and supervised more-junior public defenders doing so.
According to a charging document, Stebbins in May transmitted images of a boy engaged in sexual activity. He was arrested in late September and posted bond on Sept. 25.
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Yet another tragedy caused by Draconian sex offense laws. This man took his own life because he knew the challenges he would face as a registrant. He knew that the requirement to register is indeed punishment and not a mere administrative requirement. May he rest in peace.
Yeah, at 77 and facing the prospect of not being able to find a convalescent facility due to an almost certain conviction that would trigger registeration.
Not to mention the unspeakable shame and stigma he was facing after leading an exemplary life of public service.
But, hey… it’s not supposed to be punishment, right?
As a public defender, he certainly knew what such a charge would mean. The arrest, prison, parole, and then of course registration. Yet, it did not deter him to commit this crime. As we all know, people who want to commit a crime, will, and nothing (not even the almighty registry) will keep them from doing so. The registry is useless and needs to be abolished now!
I can’t help but wonder how many clients he told to just roll with the plea offer and downplayed the effects of the registry to get them to do so.
I’m at the point of recommending anyone with sex charges to refuse all pleas and go to full trial, regardless of what they’re threatened with. Even a life sentence isn’t as intimidating to me now, as the registry is pretty much a life sentence anyway.
The man was 77, and had no sex offense accusations for his entire life, and by all accounts appeared to have been a productive, law-abiding member of society. When did we start targeting these people? Does it make anyone actually feel safer? It’s a totalitarian and grotesque lie that somehow America is made a better place by airing everyone’s dirty laundry to the public. If supposedly in the “bad old days” corrupt people kept things “hush hush,” and we’re supposedly in a better, more enlightened time of ~transparency~, can someone explain why our political system is objectively worse, and wealth disparity is the biggest it’s been in a century? Whether it’s Bill Clinton or Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, powerful men with highly questionable personal lives have not been taken down for sex crimes, and they likely never will. I believe it was CS Lewis who said that if you start talking all the time about how many people are committing crimes, it’s not long before people start thinking “if so many people are committing crimes, why shouldn’t I?” Maybe the registry just shows the world how normal it is to violate sex laws. Maybe, instead, we should deal with minor sex crimes, like the one this lawyer committed, in a quiet, private way. EVERYONE has private lives and personal shame they don’t want exposed to the world, and society isn’t made better by giving in to our sociopathic desires to expose and humiliate.
OK, he was arrested. All avenues of employment should be considered the same.
The death of this attorney is one more example of the dire consequences of the sex offender registry. His death is a tragedy, a tragedy that could have been expected and should have never taken place. When will the U. S. Supreme Court and every court of the land find the courage to proclaim that the registry is punishment and not the same as a membership in Price Club?