COLUMBUS — Ohio’s highest court needs justices who know what it’s like to preside over trials, issue verdicts, and deliver good and bad news, according to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O’Donnell.

The Democratic judge brings 14 years on the state’s largest trial court to the race for Ohio Supreme Court that pits him against Republican appellate Judge Pat Fischer on Nov. 8. The current court is dominated by justices with appellate experience.

“These are real cases that affect real people,” the 51-year-old judge from Lakewood said. “When I decide a bench trial in a criminal case, I am the person who has to say to a defendant whether you are guilty or say to a prosecutor you didn’t prove your case and this person is not guilty.

“If a sentencing is necessary, I’m the person deciding and delivering that news,” he said. “If I give that person what appears to be a break, the victim of that crime is sitting right there and I have to do that in front of him or her.”

While Judge O’Donnell considers his trial court experience to be one of his greatest strengths, it has also led to controversy since he first ran unsuccessfully for the high court two years ago.

He acquitted Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo of voluntary manslaughter charges in the high-profile shootings of two unarmed people, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, in a car after a 2012 police chase involving more than 100 officers.

Mr. Brelo waived his right to a jury trial. Judge O’Donnell determined that prosecutors failed to prove Mr. Brelo caused the deaths because other officers also fired. He also determined that, considering the circumstances, Mr. Brelo feared for his life.

The verdict came at a time when Cleveland and other parts of the country were on edge as a result of police shootings involving African Americans. The judge said he doesn’t know how, or if, the verdict might affect this race.

“I was not unaware of the attention the case was likely to get in my area, and in the meantime there were events happening nationally that tended to suggest that the case would get a lot of attention,” Judge O’Donnell said. “I wasn’t oblivious to it, but that case had to be decided on the facts and the law, not on whether it might affect my chances for either election to the Supreme Court or re-election to the common pleas court.”

When asked what people could glean from that case as to what kind of justice he would be, he said, “Unafraid to do the right thing.”

Judge O’Donnell and 1st District Court of Appeals Judge Fischer are vying for the seat to be vacated by Justice Judith Lanzinger of Toledo, who is barred from seeking a third six-year term because of her age. Judicial candidates appear on the general election ballot without party identifiers.

The Democrat also ran for the high court in 2014, losing to Republican Justice Judith French.

Judge Fischer pointed to an ad that Judge O’Donnell aired late in that campaign suggesting Justice French’s decisions were influenced by campaign cash from utilities. The ad was condemned by a monitoring committee of the Ohio State Bar Association, which said it falsely impugned the integrity of Justice French and the judiciary.

Judge O’Donnell had signed the bar’s pledge to conduct a “clean campaign” in 2014 and has done so again this year.

“The one thing you’ve got to have in a judge is trust,” Judge Fischer said. “By doing what he did two years ago, I think people may not trust him too much. ... It was very disappointing to me, because I have met him. Very disappointing.”

Justice French benefited in 2014 from a late infusion of outside spending when polls suggested she was in trouble.

Judge O’Donnell said 2014 turned out to be a strong Republican year with the re-election of Gov. John Kasich leading the ticket. It will be different, he believes, with Donald Trump topping the GOP ticket this year.

And while business-related groups have routinely put cash behind ads supporting Republican tickets, he said the current U.S. Senate race on the ballot may leave less for lower-ballot races.

“That’s a thing I cannot control,” he said. “It did work to my disadvantage last time. It may this time, but I think money is not everything. I will certainly have enough to run a respectable political advertising campaign.

“I doubt that I’ll have as much as the Republican,” Judge O’Donnell said. “It’s just a fact, for better or worse, that [Judge Fischer is] going to out-raise, but I should be able to take advantage of some other things to come out ahead in this race.”

The state bar has rated Judge Fischer, its former bar president, as “highly recommended.” Judge O’Donnell was rated simply “recommended” after having been “highly recommended” in 2014.

Judge O’Donnell said he was unsure why fewer members of the screening panel voted to recommend him this time, but he noted that the Brelo case came up during the interview.

“Maybe somebody was offended by that decision,” he said. “... I think everybody there probably respected the judgment, but it’s hard to tell if a person disagrees or not in that setting.”

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published September 25, 2016, 4:16 a.m.