Ohio's billion-dollar execution system draws new calls for repeal
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The death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in 2001, featuring a gurney and an electric chair. Photo: Mike Simons/Getty Images
Advocates for abolishing the death penalty say it's time for Ohio legislators to catch up with public opinion and outlaw the practice once and for all.
State of play: No one has been executed in Ohio since 2018. Gov. Mike DeWine has postponed executions, saying the state is unable to secure the required drugs for lethal injection.
- There are 114 people currently on Ohio's death row, with the next execution scheduled for October.
Driving the news: Attorney General Dave Yost's recent Capital Crimes Report characterized Ohio's capital punishment system as a "ponderous machine that burns enormous amounts of effort, time and money, all to no purpose."
- The gubernatorial candidate still supports the death penalty. His preferred solution is for Ohio to expedite the process and work with the federal government to secure lethal injection drugs.
Yes, but: The advocacy organization Ohioans to Stop Executions believes the state would be better off ending capital punishment altogether.
What they're saying: "Repealing the death penalty is not just fiscally responsible," executive director Kevin Werner said at a press conference last week. "It is a moral and practical necessity."
By the numbers: OTSE released its own report finding that Ohio has now surpassed $1 billion on death penalty cases since the current law took effect in 1981.
- Of those on death row, 40 have pending claims of severe mental illness or intellectual disability.
- Thirty-five have been removed since the state's last execution for various reasons, including death by natural causes.
Between the lines: OTSE announced the formation of a new group, Ohio Homicide Co-Victims for Repeal, which will pursue a death penalty repeal and make the case that families of victims are not served by the current system.
- Cleveland Ursuline Sister Joanne Gross recounted how in 1995, after the murder of Sister Joanne Marie Mascha, local prosecutors pursued the death penalty in defiance of the Ursulines' opposition.
What we're watching: Proposed bills to end the death penalty have some Republican support in the GOP-controlled Statehouse.
- Another Republican bill would add nitrogen hypoxia asphyxiation — which has been banned for euthanizing pets — as a legal method of execution.
Zoom in: In 2018 and 2019, Cuyahoga County prosecutors sentenced more people to death (five) than anywhere else in the country during that time.
- Prosecutor Michael O'Malley's support for capital punishment came under fire during his 2024 campaign against progressive challenger Matthew Ahn. But he has long maintained that the death penalty should be available to punish "the worst of the worst."
Worth your time: Nearly 30 years after he raped and murdered a nun, an Ohio man asked for forgiveness