Michael V. DiSalle
DiSalle in 1962
60thGovernor of Ohio
In office January 12, 1959 – January 14, 1963
Lieutenant	John W. Donahey
Preceded by	C. William O'Neill
Succeeded by	Jim Rhodes
Director of the Economic Stabilization Agency
In office December 22, 1952 – January 20, 1953
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Roger Putnam
Succeeded by	Agency abolished
Director of theOffice of Price Stabilization
In office December 1950 – January 23, 1952
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Alan Valentine
46thMayor of Toledo
In office January 1948 – November 30, 1950[1]
Preceded by	Lloyd Emerson Roulet
Succeeded by	Ollie Czelusta
Member of theToledo City Council
In office 1942–1950
Member of theOhio House of Representatives
In office 1937–1939
Personal details
Born	Michael Vincent DiSalle (1908-01-06)January 6, 1908 New York City,New York,U.S.
Died	September 16, 1981(1981-09-16) (aged 73) Pescara,Abruzzo,Italy
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Myrtle Eugene England ​ ​ (m. 1929)​
Education	Georgetown University (LL.B.)
Profession	Lawyer

Michael Vincent DiSalle (January 6, 1908 – September 16, 1981)^[1][2] was the 60thgovernor of Ohio, serving from 1959 to 1963. ADemocrat, he was a member of theToledo City Council and served as the 46thmayor of Toledo from 1948 to 1950.

DiSalle was born on January 6, 1908, inNew York City,^[1] toItalian-American immigrant parents, Anthony and Assunta DiSalle. His family moved toToledo, Ohio, when he was three years old. He graduated with abachelor's degree fromGeorgetown University in 1931. He married Myrtle E. England; the couple had four daughters and one son.^[1][2]

DiSalle was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1932.^[2] In 1949, theUniversity of Notre Dame conferred him an honorarydoctorate of law.^[1]

In 1936, DiSalle was elected to theOhio House of Representatives;^[1] he served one term and lost an election for theOhio Senate in 1938.^[2]

Following the loss, DiSalle held a series of offices in the city government ofToledo, Ohio. He was assistant law director from 1939 to 1941.^[1] In 1941, he was elected to theToledo City Council;^[1] the council selected him as vice-mayor in 1943 and 1945.^[1]

In1946, DiSalle ran in theU.S. House election in the Toledo-based9th district, but he lost narrowly to theRepublican incumbent,Homer A. Ramey.^[3]

DiSalle was elected asmayor of Toledo in 1947 and re-elected in 1949, and served from 1948 until his resignation on November 30, 1950, to accept a federal appointment.^[1][4] During his mayoralty, Toledo fully re-paid its debts.^[1]

In1950, he ran unsuccessfully for theDemocratic nomination for theU.S. Senate.^[5] He lost to then-state auditorJoseph T. Ferguson, who in turn lost the general election to theRepublican incumbent,Robert A. Taft.^[5] In December 1950,PresidentHarry S. Truman appointed DiSalle as director of theOffice of Price Stabilization, a sub-agency of theKorean War-eraEconomic Stabilization Agency which established and enforced war-time price controls.^[1] DiSalle resigned as director on January 23, 1952, in order to run again forU.S. Senate.^[6] He won theDemocratic nomination but lost the general election to theRepublican incumbent,John W. Bricker.^[7]

In December 1952, President Truman (now alame duck) appointed DiSalle as director of theEconomic Stabilization Agency, replacingRoger Putnam.^[8] The appointment lasted less than one month, and PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower abolished the agency on April 30, 1953.^[9]

In1956, DiSalle was theDemocratic nominee forgovernor of Ohio, losing to then-state attorney generalC. William O'Neill.^[10] Intheir 1958 re-match, DiSalle defeated O'Neill.^[11][12] The gubernatorial term had in 1954 been lengthened from two years to four years, starting with the 1958 election; so DiSalle served as governor from 1959 to 1963.

In July 1959, DiSalle signed a bill designating "with God, all things are possible" as the official motto of the State of Ohio. The motto is derived from theGospel of Matthew,chapter 19,verse 26.^{[citation needed]}

DiSalle was afavorite son candidate forthe Democratic nomination forPresidentin 1960. He ran only inthe Ohio primary, which he won with 60.25% of the vote againstAlbert S. Porter,^[13] who had run against him in the gubernatorial primary in 1958.^[11] Of the total popular vote in the primaries, DiSalle placed sixth behind eventual nomineeSen.John F. Kennedy, as well asGov.Pat Brown, perennial candidateGeorge H. McLain,Sen.Hubert Humphrey, andSen.George Smathers.^[14]

In1962, DiSalle lost re-election as governor to then-state auditorJim Rhodes,^[15] after voters disapproved of several aspects of his administration, including his opposition tocapital punishment, a tax increase, and a policy which billedwards of state for living necessities.^[4]

DiSalle was an opponent ofdeath penalty and commuted a number of sentences as governor.^[16][17] He allowed six of the 12 death sentences he reviewed as governor to proceed. DiSalle stated that despite being "totally opposed to the death penalty", he could not use his power ofexecutive clemency withoutmitigating circumstances or evidence ofmiscarriage of justice. To do so would be to personally repeal the law providing forcapital punishment in Ohio, and he might have beenimpeached for violating hisoath of office, DiSalle wrote.^[18]

DiSalle personally investigated all cases of people scheduled to be executed byelectric chair and even personally met with some of them.^[19] He agreed withClinton Duffy, who said that murderers are more likely to be rehabilitated than other criminals.^[18] "To demonstrate his faith in rehabilitation, [DiSalle] made it a point to hire convicted murderers to serve on his household staff" at theOhio Governor's Mansion.^[18][20]

One of DiSalle's primary concerns regarding the death penalty was that poorer defendants did not have the same access to counsel as rich defendants, and therefore would suffer the death penalty disproportionately. He recalled: "I found that the men in death row had one thing in common: they were penniless".^[21] They were defended in court bycourt-appointed attorneys, some without criminal legal experience. Professional criminals "did not have to depend on volunteers", DiSalle wrote. "Nor were they ever, in my experience, executed".^[18]

DiSalle believed thatpenology should be improved. Ronald Fenton, among the 12 cases he reviewed, had raped and murdered a baby. The governor believed that such acts had proved his insanity, but psychiatrists had found him sane. Although he believed that theM'Naghten Rule was flawed, because of the finding—and expecting that had he been commuted to life imprisonment "his prisonmates would have made his life unbearable"—DiSalle allowed the execution. He cited the case as an example of how the justice system had failed to study the behavior of a minor criminal to prevent him from committing murder.^[18]

After leaving the governorship, DiSalle co-founded and served as a chairman of the National Committee to Abolish Federal Death Penalty.^[21][22] His 1965 book,The Power of Life or Death, discusses this issue and chronicles his difficult experiences as the man charged with making the final decision regarding a sentence commutation.^[23] He is quoted in the bookMercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution as saying, "No one who has never watched the hands of a clock marking the last minutes of a condemned man's existence, knowing that he alone has the temporary Godlike power to stop the clock, can realize the agony of deciding an appeal for executive clemency".^[24]

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In 1966, he joined theWashington, D.C., law firm of Chapman, Duff, and Paul.^[2] In 1979, he co-founded theWashington, D.C., law firm of DiSalle & Staudinger.^[2]

The same year, DiSalle also authored the bookSecond Choice, a history of theU.S. vice presidency.^[25]

DiSalle led adraft movement for a potential 1968 presidential campaign bySen.Ted Kennedy. He served as the honorary chairman ofKennedy's 1980 presidential campaign.^[2][4]

DiSalle died on September 16, 1981, of aheart attack while vacationing inPescara,Italy.^[26]

DiSalle has two current structures in Ohionamed for him:

• Toledo –Michael DiSalle Government Center housingfederal,state,county, andcity governmental offices.^[4]
• Toledo –Michael V. DiSalle Bridge carryingI-75 across theMaumee River.^[4]

Also, the DiSalle Center (no longer standing) at the Ohio Expo Center and theOhio State Fair inColumbus, Ohio, was named in honor of DiSalle.

• Ohio gubernatorial elections

• DiSalle, Michael V.The Power of Life or Death. New York: Random House, 1965.
• DiSalle, Michael V.Second Choice. Stroud, Gloucester, United Kingdom: Hawthorn Books, 1966.
• Marcus, Maeva.Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.ISBN 0-231-04126-8.
• Sarat, Austin.Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop An Execution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.ISBN 0-691-12140-0.
• Zimmerman, Richard.Call Me Mike: A Political Biography of Michael V. DiSalle. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2003.ISBN 0-87338-755-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMichael DiSalle.

• Michael V. DiSalle atOhio History Central

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• American people of Italian descent
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• Georgetown University alumni
• Mayors of Toledo, Ohio

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