Ohio Rep. Terry Blair (pic­tured) is one of two Republican co-spon­sors of House Bill 160, a bill that would replace the death penal­ty in the state with life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Blair, whose opin­ion on the death penal­ty puts him in the minor­i­ty in the 59-mem­ber House Republican cau­cus, attrib­ut­es his views to his reli­gious beliefs. ​“I don’t think we have any busi­ness in tak­ing anoth­er person’s life, even for what we call a legal pur­pose or what we might refer to as a jus­ti­fied pur­pose… The creeds of the church say that life is to be pro­tect­ed all along, from nat­ur­al birth to nat­ur­al death.” Blair is co-spon­sor­ing the bill with Democrats Ted Celeste and Nickie Antonio. Exeuctions are on hold in Ohio after U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost halt­ed an exe­cu­tion because of con­cerns about the state’s lethal injec­tion process. Ohio prison offi­cials have sub­mit­ted a mod­i­fied lethal injec­tion pro­to­col in antic­i­pa­tion of resum­ing exe­cu­tions next month. In 2010, Ohio was sec­ond only to Texas in the num­ber of exe­cu­tions carried out.

(“Blair takes lead in fight against death penal­ty,” Dayton Daily News, August 21, 2011). See New Voices, Recent Legislation, and Religion.

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