Lethal injection is no longer a method for capital punishment in Ohio, and lawmakers must opt for a different method before any prison inmates can be sentenced to death in the future, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced Tuesday.
The Republican governor cited difficulty in finding drugs, as well as repercussions the state could face from drug makers if one of their drugs is used to execute a prisoner, as reasons for the change.
“Lethal injection appears to us to be impossible from a practical point of view today,” DeWine told the Associated Press.
WOSU reported that since DeWine took office, he has delayed every scheduled execution for an inmate on death row.
Even those rescheduled for next year will not take place. DeWine also announced Tuesday that there would be no executions in 2021, WKSU reported.
Lethal injection is the only capital punishment method allowed under Ohio law.
A bipartisan bill was introduced to the Ohio legislature this year to abolish capital punishment and replace it with life in prison without parole. The bill, SB296, has not yet received a hearing in the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee.
The state’s last execution took place on July 18, 2018, when Ohio executed Robert Van Hook by lethal injection for murdering David Self in 1985 at a bar.
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