James M. Petro (born October 25, 1948) is an American lawyer and politician of the Republican Party who served as the Attorney General of Ohio. Previously, Petro also served as Ohio State Auditor and he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for

Governor of Ohio A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

during the 2006 Ohio primaries, but lost to

Ken Blackwell John Kenneth Blackwell (born February 28, 1948) is an American politician, author, and Conservatism in the United States, conservative activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio (1979–1980), the Ohio State Treasurer (1994–1999), and ...

Early life and early career

Petro was born October 25, 1948, in

Brooklyn, Ohio Brooklyn is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 11,359 at the 2020 census. A suburb of Cleveland, it is a part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. History Brooklyn was home to the first seat belt law in 1966 an ...

. A Brooklyn High School graduate, he attended

Denison University Denison University is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio, United States. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. It was first called ...

Granville, Ohio Granville is a Village (United States)#Ohio, village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,946 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The village is located in a rural area of hills, known locally as the Welsh Hills ...

, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and joined the

Lambda Chi Alpha Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly referred to as Lambda Chi, is a fraternities and sororities, collegiate fraternity in North America. With over 300,000 initiates as of 2024, it is the third-largest social fraternity in the world by number of initia ...

fraternity A fraternity (; whence, "wikt:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular ...

. He later earned his J.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

. Petro served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Franklin County as a trial lawyer responsible for felony prosecutions, and then as Assistant Director of Law for the city of Cleveland, Ohio. After starting his private practice, Petro became prosecuting attorney for the city of

Rocky River, Ohio Rocky River is a city in western Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. A suburb of Cleveland, it is located along the shore of Lake Erie approximately west of downtown Cleveland. The city is named for the Rocky River (Ohio), Rocky River that for ...

Political career

Petro began his political career in 1977 when he was elected to the Rocky River city council, and later served as the director of the city. In 1980, he was elected to the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in ...

. He served four years as a state representative. In 1991, Petro became County Commissioner for

Cuyahoga County Cuyahoga County ( or , see ) is a large urban county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. The county seat and most populous city is Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,264,817, making it the second ...

; during his four-year term he was President of the board for a year. Petro was elected Ohio Auditor in 1994 and re-elected in 1998, serving two terms from 1995 to 2003. As Auditor he served as the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices in the state; the office is the largest state auditing agency in the United States, second in size only to the United States

Government Accountability Office The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the s ...

. In November 2002, Petro was elected the Ohio attorney general, serving from 2003 to 2007. In 2005, Petro became the first Ohio attorney general to argue a case in front of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

in over thirty years; he won the case by a vote of nine to zero. As Ohio's Attorney General he successfully defended the law banning late term abortions in the state. As attorney general, Petro also launched an effort that added 210,000 criminal DNA profiles from Ohio to the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

Candidacy for Governor

On January 30, 2006, Petro announced that Joy Padgett would be his running mate for the Governor's position. Padgett, a Republican state senator from Coshocton, Ohio, was selected after Petro's first running mate, Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich, dropped out of the campaign to run for re-election as Commissioner of Hamilton County. Petro was defeated in the May 2, 2006, primary by

, Ohio's then- Secretary of State.

Legal work and ''False Justice''

Petro became the first attorney general in the country to intervene in a case spearheaded by the

Innocence Project Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and other forms of post-conviction relief, as well as advocates for criminal justice reform to prevent futur ...

, a non-profit legal clinic that pioneered the use of DNA testing to prove wrongful conviction. The case exonerated Clarence Elkins, a family man with no prior criminal record who had been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his mother-in-law. After his involvement in subsequent high-profile cases including Dean Gillispie. Petro and his wife Nancy co-authored ''False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent'', which raises questions regarding the fairness of the American justice system and identifies flaws in how police and prosecutors handle evidence, especially in capital cases. The book also examines how the authors believe DNA evidence has played a critical role in exonerating convicted people and highlight what the authors call the unreliability of eyewitness testimony.

Board of Regents

Petro was appointed chancellor of the

Ohio Board of Regents The Ohio Board of Regents was created in 1963 by the Ohio General Assembly to: provide higher education policy advice to the Governor of Ohio and the Ohio General Assembly; develop a strategy involving Ohio's public and independent colleges and ...

in March 2011 by Governor

John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician and author who was the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, and a Republican candidate for the pre ...

. Chancellor Petro leads the University System of Ohio, which is one of the largest comprehensive systems of public higher education in the nation. The University System of Ohio bears the primary responsibility for raising Ohioans' educational attainment.Governor's office press release
. Ohio.gov (February 2011). Retrieved on January 22, 2016.

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petro, Jim 1948 births Case Western Reserve University School of Law alumni Chancellors of the University System of Ohio Denison University alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Ohio House of Representatives Ohio attorneys general People from Brooklyn, Ohio Politicians from Cleveland Ohio state auditors 20th-century members of the Ohio General Assembly