The botched lethal injection of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike on Sept. 30, and news that the Secretary of Defense wants to livestream a firing squad execution have people in Ohio talking. But the attention on the death penalty now isn't likely to result in changes in the state's policies this year.
Ohio has had botched executions, but none like that of Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injections.
“That’s another reason to distrust in the government with this ultimate power," said Rep. Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon). He's a joint sponsor of House Bill 72, which would get rid of the death penalty in Ohio, along with banning public funding for drugs that induce abortion or assist with suicide. He said there's increasing support among his colleagues, as well as the public in general, for abolishing the death penalty.
"Speaking with people, I think it is much more nuanced than a single poll," Mathews said in an interview. "I do note that neither the Republican nor the Democratic national platforms have the death penalty on them either way. And the Republicans used to have it and no longer do. And so I do believe this, there's a bipartisan conversation going that recognizes the immense power that the state has in this situation where, if it makes a mistake, whether in the execution method or in the finding of guilt, you cannot take it back."
But one of Mathews' Republican colleagues believes there's still widespread support for the death penalty in Ohio.
Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) said problems with securing drugs for lethal injection have been cited as a reason for putting executions on hold in Ohio. House Bill 36, the bill he's joint sponsoring, would expand the methods of execution to include anything deemed acceptable by the U.S. Supreme Court, including firing squad or toxic gas.
“Folks who are interested in this continuing to be carried out, I think, are probably open to other methods if we are going to have folks botching the drug cocktail," Stewart said in an interview.
The death penalty has been on hold since 2019, when Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has been in office. In June, DeWine asked state lawmakers to abolish executions in Ohio. Stewart said he doesn't see his bill passing during the upcoming lame duck session.
"So long as we have a governor that is determined to disregard these unanimous sentences from Ohio juries, I don't think we have a belief that he's going to sign a bill that clears the way for those to resume," Stewart said.
Mathews said he doesn't expect his bill to advance during the lame duck session either.
But DeWine will be finishing his second term at the end of this year. So it will fall to the next governor and the next General Assembly to decide what will happen to capital punishment in Ohio.
