‘A Stark Contrast in Approach’: Michael O’Malley and Matthew Ahn Go Toe-to-Toe in Prosecutor Race Forum

Two very disparate takes on Cuyahoga County’s justice system were on display this week at virtual forum between county prosecutor candidates Matthew Ahn and Michael O’Malley.

Held over Zoom Thursday afternoon, and moderated by Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association attorney Matthew Besser, the two candidates vying to win the Democratic primary — and, essentially, the entire race — for the top legal seat in the county in November sparred on a number of topics, from the brimming jail population to office transparency, from conviction ethics to the issue of the death penalty.

The event amplified the noticeable differences between the two: in age, in policy, in political lean, in overall stature. (Except in dress: both candidates showed up in a powder blue shirt and a royal-blue jacket.)

To put it relatively brief: 32-year-old Ahn further solidified himself as the candidate of progressive ideas; 59-year-old O’Malley as the weathered prosecutor resting on the badge of experience.

Among issues of Cuyahoga County’s future jail site build, of office transparency, nothing seemed more of contrast than the topic of court bindovers, when juveniles are tried as adults. Besides mandatory bindovers—say, when a 16-year-old is caught on video killing two victims—the two sparred about each other’s idea of discretionary, or voluntary, bindovers. When the court decides.

Ahn’s viewpoint was, of course, driven by data and race politics: 90% of kids tried as adults in recent years, he said, are Black. Therefore, he argued, the court should look away from bindovers, and more so to what causes a 16-year-old to use a gun in the first place. (Though Ahn was nebulous on such examples.)

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Mark Oprea

Thursday’s Zoom debate: Ahn versus O’Malley.

“All of the studies that we have demonstrate that children who are tried as adults and sent to adult prison are much more likely to commit more crimes upon their release as compared to children who are kept in juvenile court for the exact same charges,” Ahn said. “So this is a practice that is also subject to a very severe racial disparity.”

O’Malley retaliated with his own data: 80% of last year’s teenage suspects were tried as adults; though only nine total bindovers were discretionary. He added that, as per policy, those optional bindovers—ordered by the court or by O’Malley’s office—require mental health reports, dives into prior crime, into a kid’s “response to previous treatment.”

The prosecutor, who reiterated several times he’s been involved in the county’s justice system since 1987, rested on a hard-nosed stance for which he’s become known.

“Fifty-three percent of those bindovers last years were aggravated murder, murder, attempted murder,” he said. “So these aren’t, like, kids stealing Hyundais and Kias. These are individuals with guns who are causing havoc.”

But what data is, and how it’s handled, was probably the most illuminating divider between the two. Whenever Ahn was knee-deep in the tenets of his “fairer, data-driven, more evidence-based” take on the prosecutor’s seat, O’Malley seemed to raise his brows, or allow a kind of dubious smirk. And for every career point O’Malley was proud to rattle off, Ahn seemed to have the policy tweak in mind ready to go.

We saw this in the candidates’ take on the Office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, a branch of the prosecutor’s office that takes on cases of alleged wrongful conviction. Ahn again wanted to overhaul the unit with a “collaborative approach” to avoid poor judgment; O’Malley offered a hands-off rebuttal that appeared to mock Ahn’s data mind.

“I’m proud to say that the rate of relief [for the Unit] is fifteen times better than that of the Ohio Innocence Project,” O’Malley said, citing the criminal justice reform advocacy group. “Which should tell you the type of work we’re doing.”

The volley continued, and came to a head, when the two discussed their takes on capital punishment.

Despite “moral questions,” Ahn called Ohio’s death penalty a “policy failure on every front,” citing the “eight wrongful death sentences” in Cuyahoga County in recent memory—one of the highest rates by county in the nation. He mentioned Alabama, which has the country’s highest error rates in capital punishment. (For every eight executed, one is exonerated.)

“That is better accountability, it is better for victims, and it is better on a policy level,” Ahn said.

O’Malley interjected: “I don’t understand Matt’s view after his three or four minutes” of speaking.

“My feelings have certainly evolved; I do a lot of self-reflection as the prosecutor,” O’Malley added. “All of these cases are serious. As I said, we have not had a capital case in Cuyahoga County in over four years. But I can tell you this: If we have a mass shooting with mass casualties? My guess is you’d probably see it again.”

In his concluding two minutes, Ahn spoke pointedly about the campaign he’s run since early 2023, one that’s fueled primarily by an almost emotional belief in best practices. Before convictions. Before bindovers. “That is not the way my opponent has run the office. That is not the way we have seen the office run.”

Ahn added, “What you’ve seen here today is a stark contrast in approach.”

O’Malley, in his concluding thoughts, seemed to shrug in his swivel chair. Experience, he said. Managment. “The reality is, Matt’s never had a case,” he said. “He’s never worked with law enforcement. He has no idea what data we use. He has no idea what we do with the data.”

Both candidates will have roughly a month of campaigning before the county primary on March 19. The seat itself will be decided in November’s general election.

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