News Brief — Governor DeWine Puts Off Three More Ohio Executions, Citing Drug Unavailability

NEWS (4/​14/​20) — Ohio: Citing the con­tin­u­ing unavail­abil­i­ty of lethal-injec­tion drugs to car­ry out exe­cu­tions in the state, Governor Mike DeWine has issued reprieves post­pon­ing the exe­cu­tions of three more Ohio death-row pris­on­ers. Romell Broom, John Hanna, and Douglas Coley had been sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 17, July 16, and August 12, 2020, respec­tive­ly. Their exe­cu­tions were resched­uled for March 16, May 18, and July 20, 2022.

In a news release, the Governor’s office said DeWine issued the reprieves because of ​“ongo­ing prob­lems involv­ing the will­ing­ness of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sup­pli­ers to pro­vide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction … with­out endan­ger­ing other Ohioans.”

DeWine has grant­ed eight reprieves in 2020 as a result of drug­mak­ers’ refusals to sell med­i­cines to the state for use in exe­cu­tions. In 2017, for­mer Governor John Kasich issued reprieves for three oth­er Ohio pris­on­ers sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in 2020 and reset their exe­cu­tions for 2021.

Ohio first attempt­ed to exe­cute Broom in September 2009, call­ing off the pro­ce­dure after two hours of unsuc­cess­ful efforts by exe­cu­tion­ers to estab­lish a viable IV line. In a 4 – 3 deci­sion in March 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a sec­ond exe­cu­tion attempt would not vio­late Broom’s con­sti­tu­tion­al right against ​“twice [being] put in jeop­ardy of life or limb,” say­ing Broom had not been in jeop­ardy of death in 2009 because an exe­cu­tion ​“com­mences when the lethal drug enters the IV line.”