Gov DeWine essentially declares a de facto moratorium on executions in the state for 2021 and likely beyond

Ohio has long been an interesting death penalty state, in part because it has been among the most active capital punishment states not in the south as measured in terms of executions and death sentences.  It also has reflected the usual politics of death in recent times with 17 executions carried out from 2007 to 2010 under Ohio's last Democratic Governor (Ted Strickland), but only 15 executions from 2011 to 2020 under the Republican Governors of John Kasich and Mike DeWine.  And, according to this new AP article, headlined "Ohio governor: Lethal injection no longer execution option," it now appears that current Ohio Gov DeWine has declared a functional moratorium on executions in the state for the foreseeable future:

Lethal injection is no longer an option for Ohio executions, and lawmakers must choose a different method of capital punishment before any inmates can be put to death in the future, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday.

It’s “pretty clear” there won’t be any executions next year, DeWine told The Associated Press during a year-end interview, adding he doesn’t see support in the Legislature for making a switch in execution method a priority. Ohio has an “unofficial moratorium” on capital punishment, he said. “Lethal injection appears to us to be impossible from a practical point of view today,” the governor said.

DeWine said he still supports capital punishment as Ohio law. But he has come to question its value since the days he helped write the state’s current law — enacted in 1981 — because of the long delays between crime and punishment. DeWine called himself “much more skeptical about whether it meets the criteria that was certainly in my mind when I voted for the death penalty and that was that it in fact did deter crime, which to me is the moral justification.”

Messages were left for leaders in the GOP-controlled House and Senate seeking comment. Former Republican House Speaker Larry Householder, now under federal indictment for his alleged role in a $60 million bribery scheme, questioned last year whether the state should reconsider capital punishment because of the cost and Ohio’s inability to find lethal drugs.

The state’s last execution was July 18, 2018, when Ohio put to death Robert Van Hook for killing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985. Shortly after taking office in 2019, DeWine ordered the Ohio prison system to look at alternative lethal injection drugs. That announcement followed a federal judge’s ruling that said Ohio’s current execution protocol could cause the inmate “severe pain and needless suffering.”

Opponents of Ohio’s death penalty called on lawmakers last month to enact a capital punishment ban during the current lame duck legislative session. They repeated that demand Tuesday. “It’s time for the General Assembly to just end the death penalty in Ohio and repurpose the funds wasted trying to execute people into programs to better serve the needs of murder victim families,” said Abraham Bonowitz, Death Penalty Action director.

I have a few former student who I know work tirelessly on behalf of condemned Ohio defendants, and I sincerely hope this news serves as a kind of holiday present from Gov DeWine for them and their clients.

Some prior related posts during the DeWine era:

• New Ohio Gov puts halt to all executions until Ohio develops new execution method 
• Amidst persistent difficulties with lethal injection drugs, Ohio legislator to propose use of fentanyl taken from drug busts for executions 
• Might execution woes really lead Ohio's (deep red) General Assembly to repeal the death penalty? 
• Has Ohio really had its last execution? 
• Ohio legislators predict more talk, but no likely action, on state's dormant death penalty
• Is Ohio really likely to repeal the death penalty "in the next year or so"? 
• Can a new conservative group help get the death penalty abolished in Ohio?
• Latest issue of Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law full of capital punishment discussion