Entries tagged with “Mike DeWine”

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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Methods of Execution

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Feb 02, 2024

Ohio Officials Divided on Death Penalty as Attorney General Pushes New Bill to Legalize Nitrogen Hypoxia for Executions

On Tuesday, January 30, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced new leg­is­la­tion to autho­rize the use of nitro­gen gas in exe­cu­tions in the state. Joined by sev­er­al Republican state rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Louis Tobin of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, AG Yost said that he is seek­ing to ​“kick­start” Ohio’s death penal­ty after a six-year pause in exe­cu­tions due to dif­fi­cul­ties obtain­ing lethal injec­tion drugs. ​“The sta­tus quo is unac­cept­able,” he said. According to the text of the…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Dec 13, 2023

After Five-Year Execution Pause, Ohio Leaders Question Value of Death Penalty

A pro­posed death penal­ty repeal bill in the Ohio leg­is­la­ture is draw­ing atten­tion to the state’s five-year pause on exe­cu­tions, and lead­ing state offi­cials from both par­ties to ques­tion whether the death penal­ty sys­tem is work­ing. Ohio Attorney General David Yost (pic­tured) summed up the sit­u­a­tion by say­ing, ​“This sys­tem sat­is­fies nobody. Those who oppose the death penal­ty want it abol­ished alto­geth­er, not tick­ing away like a time bomb that might or might not explode. Those who support the…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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Sep 12, 2023

Ohio General Assembly Resumes Bipartisan Efforts to Abolish the Death Penalty

On September 6, 2023, a bipar­ti­san group of Ohio state rep­re­sen­ta­tives rein­tro­duced a bill that would abol­ish the death penal­ty and replace the pun­ish­ment with life in prison with­out parole. Legislators in Ohio have debat­ed the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for near­ly a decade, but this renewed effort comes after state sen­a­tors intro­duced Senate Bill 101 ear­li­er in the year, which would also abol­ish the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Among the pri­ma­ry spon­sors of these bills is Representative Jean…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Aug 09, 2023

NEW VOICES: Op-Eds Highlight Opposing Viewpoints on Ohio’s Death Penalty

In light of the five-year anniver­sary of Ohio’s last exe­cu­tion, two op-eds high­light­ing dif­fer­ent views about the death penal­ty were pub­lished in the Dayton Daily News. On August 1, Louis Tobin (pic­tured right), Executive Director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, expressed his sup­port for the death penal­ty, and two days lat­er, Reverend Dr. Crystal Walker (pic­tured left), co-chair of Ohioans to Stop Executions, expressed her sup­port for alter­na­tives to the death penalty. …

Policy Issues

Costs

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Lethal Injection

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Jul 18, 2023

Ohio Joins Fifteen Other States Without an Execution in 5 Years

Today marks the five-year anniver­sary of Ohio’s last exe­cu­tion, which took place on July 18, 2018. Ohio now joins 15 oth­er states with­out an exe­cu­tion in the past five years. Although there is no for­mal mora­to­ri­um, Governor Mike DeWine has issued sev­er­al reprieves due to con­cerns about the lethal injec­tion pro­to­col and the dif­fi­cul­ty the state has had obtain­ing lethal injec­tion drugs. Ohio has exe­cut­ed 56 peo­ple in the mod­ern death penal­ty era, plac­ing it 8th over­all in the number of…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Apr 26, 2023

EDITORIALS: Cleveland Plain Dealer Endorses Death Penalty Abolition Bill

The board of Cleveland​.com and The Plain Dealer pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al sup­port­ing the pas­sage of Senate Bill 101 that would abol­ish the death penal­ty in Ohio. “[T]he time is right,” states the piece, ​“for the General Assembly to come togeth­er to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Ohio. Its inequities are man­i­fest, its bar­barism is clear — and its time has…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Public Opinion

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Recent Legislative Activity

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Feb 23, 2021

Ohio Legislators Launch Bipartisan Effort to Repeal State’s Death Penalty

A bipar­ti­san group of leg­is­la­tors has announced the intro­duc­tion of a bill to repeal Ohio’s death penal­ty. In a vir­tu­al press con­fer­ence on February 18, 2021, four Republican and four Democratic leg­is­la­tors spoke about the lat­est effort to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the Buckeye…

Jan 06, 2020

Criticism by Government Leaders, Victim’s Son Fuel Growing Doubts About Viability of Ohio’s Death Penalty

With exe­cu­tions on hold due to prob­lems with the lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col, the future of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Ohio is uncer­tain. High-rank­ing Ohio offi­cials have expressed con­cerns about the effec­tive­ness and via­bil­i­ty of the state’s death penal­ty, and two recent columns in lead­ing Ohio news­pa­pers have argued that the state should end capital…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Lethal Injection

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Oct 31, 2019

Georgia Supreme Court, Ohio Governor Provisionally Halt Three Executions

Three U.S. exe­cu­tions were halt­ed on October 30, 2019, as the Georgia Supreme Court issued a day-of-exe­cu­tion stay to Ray Jefferson Cromartie and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (pic­tured) grant­ed war­rants of reprieve to the next two death-row pris­on­ers sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Ohio. The actions capped a tumul­tuous October in which nine of ten sched­uled exe­cu­tions did not take place and fed­er­al courts stayed two…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Lethal Injection

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Aug 23, 2019

Ohio House Speaker Expresses Doubts About Death Penalty, as Opioid Experts, Governor Blast Call to Use Seized Fentanyl for Executions

The tur­moil sur­round­ing Ohio​’s death penal­ty con­tin­ued to grow as pub­lic health experts crit­i­cized a legislator’s sug­ges­tion that the state use seized drugs to car­ry out exe­cu­tions and the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder (pic­tured), expressed grow­ing doubts about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment itself. Governor Mike DeWine joined crit­ics of the fen­tanyl pro­pos­al, declar­ing that it was ​“not an option” for resum­ing exe­cu­tions in the…