Yost calls for ending Ohio's death penalty moratorium
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Attorney General Dave Yost has made a strenuous case for Ohio to restart executions in his eighth and final capital crimes report.
Why it matters: Ohio hasn't carried out an execution since 2018, under a de facto moratorium by Gov. Mike DeWine tied largely to the state's inability to secure lethal injection drugs.
What they're saying: Yost, a Republican, argues that Ohio has made "a mockery of the justice system," and is failing victims and their families by not carrying out death sentences.
- "For the worst-of-the-worst killers, Ohio is wandering in a wilderness of lawlessness and desert of justice," he writes.
By the numbers: More than 100 people remain on death row in the state — including 17 active cases in Cuyahoga County — with average wait times exceeding two decades.
- Some inmates now have scheduled execution dates stretching as far as 2029.
Zoom in: Yost highlights the brutal 1985 murder of 12-year-old Raymond Fife in Warren by teenagers Timothy Combs and Danny Lee Hill as a cut-and-dry example of a crime he says warrants execution.
The big picture: He dismisses concerns about wrongful executions, noting that most exonerations are the result of "legal errors that resulted in improper sentencing."
The other side: A new report from Ohioans to Stop Executions paints a starkly different picture.
- It found that for every five executions in Ohio, one person on death row has been exonerated.
Friction point: The Fife case underscores the difference of opinion.
- Hill, who was 18 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to death in 1986. His execution date has been postponed until 2029, and he has pending claims of intellectual disability and severe mental illness.
- As of Dec. 31, 2025, Hill's was one of 28 pending petitions before Ohio courts by death row inmates who claim they should be exempt from execution, citing Ohio's 2021 severe mental illness law.
Abdul Awkal, who was convicted in Cuyahoga County in 1992, was one of three individuals removed from Ohio's death row last year. He was ruled ineligible for the death penalty under that law.
Stunning stat: OTSE says misconduct by police and prosecutors — not what Yost refers to as "legal errors" — is a leading factor in exonerations, having been present in 11 of 12 Ohio death row exonerations.
- That's why Elwood Jones was exonerated in December, after serving 27 years on death row for a crime he did not commit.
- Hamilton County prosecutors failed to turn over nearly 4,000 pages of material containing exculpatory evidence in the 1996 trial.
State Sen. Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) was among the primary sponsors of a bipartisan 2025 bill to abolish Ohio's death penalty, but no hearings have taken place.