The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced on October 19 that the state was post­pon­ing all exe­cu­tions until at least 2017 because it has been unable to obtain the lethal injec­tion drugs nec­es­sary to car­ry them out. Governor John Kasich issued war­rants of reprieve resched­ul­ing the exe­cu­tions of 11 death-row pris­on­ers with exe­cu­tion dates in 2016 and a 12th with a January 2017 exe­cu­tion date. Ohio resched­uled the exe­cu­tions for dates in 2017 through 2019. The Department issued a state­ment explain­ing that ​“over the past few years it has become exceed­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to secure [exe­cu­tion] drugs because of severe sup­ply and dis­tri­b­u­tion restric­tions.” Ohio passed a secre­cy law to shield the iden­ti­ty of any lethal injec­tion drug provider. However, the Columbus Dispatch recent­ly report­ed that the law did not work because Ohio phar­ma­cies, bound by the Hippocratic oath or fear­ing adverse reac­tions from their cus­tomers, did not want to be involved in exe­cu­tions. Ohio also has been unable to obtain lethal injec­tion drugs from abroad. In June, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration warned the state that impor­ta­tion of exe­cu­tion drugs would vio­late fed­er­al law. The state has sent a let­ter to the FDA argu­ing that it should be able to legal­ly import sodi­um thiopen­tal for exe­cu­tions. Ohio’s last exe­cu­tion was the botched exe­cu­tion of Dennis McGuire on January 16, 2014, using an exper­i­men­tal two-drug pro­to­col of mida­zo­lam and hydro­mor­phone. Witnesses report­ed that McGuire gasped, snort­ed, and strug­gled through­out the exe­cu­tion, tak­ing 25 min­utes to die. After that exe­cu­tion, Ohio announced that it would shift to a one-drug pro­to­col of either pen­to­bar­bi­tal or sodium thiopental. 

(D. Bailey, ​“Ohio delays exe­cu­tions into 2017 due to lack of lethal drugs,” Reuters, October 19, 2015; A. Johnson, ​“Pharmacies avoid exe­cu­tion trade,” Columbus Dispatch, October 16, 2015.) See Lethal Injection and Upcoming Executions.

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