“At a time when faith in society’s insti­tu­tions is at an all-time low, the fail­ure of the cap­i­tal-pun­ish­ment sys­tem could be Exhibit A,” con­cludes the annu­al Capital Crimes Report issued by by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The Report high­lights numer­ous prob­lems with its ​“bro­ken” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, includ­ing the ​“enor­mous­ly expen­sive” cost. 

The Ohio Legislative Service Commission has esti­mat­ed that the cost of cap­i­tal cas­es range from $1 to $3 mil­lion per case based on a col­lec­tion of quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive stud­ies in oth­er states. ​“If these esti­mates apply to Ohio, then the extra cost of impos­ing the death penal­ty 121 times on the 119 peo­ple cur­rent­ly on Death Row might range from $121 mil­lion to $363 mil­lion,” notes the Report. “[I]t’s a stun­ning amount of mon­ey to spend on a pro­gram that doesn’t achieve its purpose.” 

Of the 341 death sen­tences imposed on 336 pris­on­ers from the state’s enact­ment of the death penal­ty in 1981 through the end of 2023, only one of every six sen­tences, or 56 exe­cu­tions, have been car­ried out. The Report notes that ​“87 death sen­tences have been removed by judi­cial action result­ing in resen­tenc­ing or release.” Twenty-one pris­on­ers have had their sen­tences com­mut­ed. Forty pris­on­ers have died of nat­ur­al caus­es or sui­cide, which the Report notes are more like­ly caus­es of death than exe­cu­tion. Nine pris­on­ers with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties were removed from death row after the Supreme Court held that exe­cut­ing peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in Atkins v. Virginia (2002). Under Ohio’s 2021 law bar­ring the death penal­ty for indi­vid­u­als with severe men­tal ill­ness – only one of two states with such leg­is­la­tion – six peo­ple have been removed from death row and anoth­er 35 peti­tions are cur­rent­ly pend­ing review. 

As of December 31, 2023, 119 peo­ple with 121 death sen­tences remain on Ohio’s death row, nine few­er peo­ple than 2022. As of April 1, 2024, pris­on­ers spent an aver­age of 7805 days or 21 years on Ohio’s death row – a num­ber that has con­sis­tent­ly increased with each year. Prisoners are an aver­age of 55.5 years old today and were an aver­age of 34 years old at their time of sen­tenc­ing (fig­ures used the most cur­rent resen­tenc­ing). Due to dif­fi­cul­ty obtain­ing lethal injec­tion drugs, the state has not car­ried out exe­cu­tions since 2018, at which time the aver­age time spent on death row was 6,280 days or 17.19 years. Currently, there is a bill in the state leg­is­la­ture propos­ing the autho­riza­tion of nitro­gen gas in exe­cu­tions, described by AG Yost as a way to ​“kick­start” exe­cu­tions. The report iden­ti­fies eight cas­es in which an exe­cu­tion date could be filed. 

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Sources

2023 Ohio Capital Crimes Report