Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio, although all executions have been suspended indefinitely by Governor Mike DeWine until a replacement for lethal injection is chosen by the Ohio General Assembly. [1] The last execution in the state was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder. [2]
As of February 2021 [update] , there have been 393 executions in Ohio's history.
Before 1885, executions were carried out by hanging in the county where the crime was committed. The Northwest Territory's first criminal statutes, [3] also known as Marietta Code, [4] date from 1788, 15 years before Ohio's statehood in 1803. These statutes did not ensure yet any uniform means of execution, nor did they designate where the executions were to take place. The statutory change from 1815 had executions to be carried out locally and required the local sheriff to be the local executioner, and in his absence or in any case of him being impeded, the local coroner would have to substitute him. [5] That ordeal appears to be the first statewide attempt to ensure uniform means of execution and to designate where such executions were to take place, however, it also appears to confirm legally a practice which had become institutionalized even before Ohio's statehood in 1803.
In 1885, the legislature enacted a law that required executions to be carried out at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus by hanging, [6] and law handed the executioner's job to the penitentiary's warden. [7] This practice of naming the State Prison's warden executioner seems to have continued well into the 20th Century, as can be learned from the 1938 death sentence against Anna Marie Hahn. [8]
In 1897 the gallows were replaced by electrocution, which was considered to be a more technologically advanced and humane method of execution. Ohio also became the second state to use the electric chair. 28 hangings and 315 electrocutions were carried out at the now-defunct Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus from 1885 to 1963. On October 27, 1911, 43 years old Charles Justice was electrocuted for the murder of John Shoup, a farmer from Xenia who, on September 26, 1910, had caught Justice while he tried to steal from the Shoups' chicken house and was subsequently shot three times. Ironically, Justice had previously been an inmate of the Ohio Penitentiary and he had worked in the prison tin shop, where he built iron clamps to replace the leather straps that Ohio's electric chair was originally fitted with. He was therefore executed in the very same chair he had helped improve. [9] [10]
The 31st inmate executed in Ohio since 1999, Marvallous Keene, was the 1000th person to be executed by lethal injection since its first use for executions by the U.S. in 1982. [11]
On July 1, 2011, Lundbeck, the Danish pharmaceutical company that holds the sole licence to manufacture pentobarbital in the United States, announced that its distributors would deny distribution of pentobarbital to U.S. prisons that carry out the death penalty by lethal injection. Ohio used up its supply of pentobarbital on September 25, 2013, with the execution of Harry Mitts Jr. [12] On January 16, 2014, Ohio executed Dennis McGuire who was convicted of raping and then murdering 22-year-old Joy Stewart who was 30 weeks pregnant, becoming the first U.S. inmate to be executed with a combination of the drugs midazolam and hydromorphone. [12] [13] The effects of this combination of drugs on the body are controversial and not well understood. [12] [14] McGuire took 25 minutes to die, an unusually long time for an execution, [14] being among the longest since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. [15]
In January 2015, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced that all executions scheduled for the remainder of that year would be postponed due to the lack of availability of required drugs. In October 2015, the department further announced that Governor John Kasich had granted additional reprieves to all inmates due to be executed in 2016 for the same reason. [16] Executions resumed in Ohio on July 26, 2017, when the state executed murderer Ronald Phillips. [17]
The most recent execution in Ohio was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder. The execution was carried out at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in unincorporated Scioto County, just outside the community of Lucasville. Since January 2012, death row for the majority of male inmates is located at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution (CCI) in unincorporated Ross County, just outside of Chillicothe. A few high-security male death row inmates are held at the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) in Youngstown. Condemned female inmates are housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville and death row inmates with serious medical conditions are held at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus. [18] Before this, most male death row inmates were held at OSP with a few being held at the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Mansfield. The move to CCI allows the units at OSP and Mansfield to be used to separate violent inmates from the general population and will provide increased security and reduce transportation costs to both the execution chamber at SOCF and the Franklin Medical Center for inmates medical treatment. [18] [19]
On December 8, 2020, Governor Mike DeWine placed what he called an “unofficial moratorium” on capital punishment in the state, as a result of the impossibility to acquire drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection. DeWine indicated no executions would be carried out until the Ohio General Assembly approves another method, as lethal injection is the only currently approved method. [20]
In January 2024, after Alabama authorized the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen hypoxia, Ohio lawmakers were considering to legalize nitrogen gas as a new method of execution aside from lethal injection, and the new method was supported by the Attorney-General of Ohio. [21] [22] [23]
As of September 9,2024 [update] , Ohio has 114 inmates on death row. [24] Notable inmates on Ohio's death row include serial killers: Shawn Grate, Anthony Kirkland, and Michael Madison. The only woman on Ohio's death row is Donna Roberts, who murdered her ex-husband in order to collect his life insurance. [24]
Only 28 people were ever executed by the state of Ohio via hanging before the state switched to the electric chair in 1897.
"That the mode of inflicting the punishment of death in all cases under this act, shall be by hanging by the neck, until the person so to be punished shall be dead; & the sheriff, or the coroner in the case of the death, inability or absence of the sheriff of the proper county, in which the sentence of death shall be pronounced by force of this act, shall be the executioner". [25]
Ohio switched its method of execution from hanging to electrocution in 1897.
Thomas Edison, a resident of Akron, Ohio, as well as New York, New Jersey, and Michigan, directed his employees to develop the electric chair. Edison felt that the electric chair would be less cruel than hanging. However, a prisoner's bones were set on fire during Edison's prison demonstration.[ citation needed ]
"[O]n the 10th day of March 1938, the said Warden shall cause a current of electricity of sufficient intensity to cause death to pass through the body of the said defendant, the application of such current to be continued until the said defendant is dead, and may God have mercy on your soul". [8]
Ohio executed 315 people via electrocution until 1963 before it switched over to lethal injection in the 1990s.[ clarification needed ]
Lethal injection was the most recent method of execution in Ohio.
Over the years, the state of Ohio has used several methods of lethal injection, culminating in the two-drug combination of midazolam and hydromorphone.
The dose of midazolam starts at triple the dose used for sedation for office procedures, and the hydromorphone dose is a 150-to-500-fold overdose for parenteral analgesia in opioid-naïve patients. [26] [12] [13]
When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.
In the case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if only a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial). [27]
The power of clemency belongs to the governor of Ohio, after receiving a non-binding recommendation from the Ohio Parole Board. [28]
A charge of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications may occur with at least one of the following special circumstances: [29]
There is a movement in the state to end the death penalty. According to the Associated Press, Republicans such as former Ohio Governor Bob Taft, great-grandson of President William Howard Taft, and former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro have publicly opposed the death penalty. Taft questioned the effectiveness of the death penalty as well as geographic and racial disparities. The former Speaker of the House in Ohio, also Republican, Larry Householder, wants the legislature to reconsider the law because of the cost of executions and the failure of the state to obtain drugs.
The BBC reported that The European Commission - the executive arm of the European Union - wished to ensure that no drugs were being exported from the Union for use in "capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". The EU is part of a worldwide movement against the death penalty. Amnesty International's annual report found that in 2019, prisoners were executed in only 20 of the 195 countries of the world. [30]
Members of many religious faiths in Ohio have also officially opposed the death penalty. [31] [32]
The Los Angeles Times noted in October 2009 that Ohio had three botched executions by lethal injection since 2006: Joseph Lewis Clark, Christopher Newton and Romell Broom. [33] In November 2009, Ohio announced that it would only use a single drug for lethal injections, consisting of a single dose of sodium thiopental, the first state to do so. The first single drug execution was that of Kenneth Biros, 51, on Tuesday, December 8, 2009. Biros was convicted of murdering 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Masury, Ohio in 1991. Biros' counsel indicated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that Biros' execution, given that it is the first of its kind, may amount to "human experimentation." Various appeals for clemency were ultimately denied. Ohio announced in January 2011 that it will change the drug used from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital, as the availability of sodium thiopental had become quite scarce. The first execution using pentobarbital, was that of Johnnie Baston, on March 10, 2011. [34]
The Atlantic magazine wrote that on January 14, 2014, Dennis McGuire took over 11 minutes to die and was unable to breathe, during a lethal injection in Ohio's death chamber. "Over those 11 minutes or more he was fighting for breath, and I could see both of his fists were clenched the entire time," recounted Father Lawrence Hummer, an execution witness. "There is no question in my mind that Dennis McGuire suffered greatly over many minutes." [35]
Ohio has failed twice in its efforts to execute an inmate by lethal injection. Romell Broom and Alva Campbell had their executions aborted due to the execution teams not being able to find a usable vein. [36] Both later died on death row while awaiting new execution dates. [37] [38]
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty in 27 states, throughout the country at the federal level, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in the other 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 7, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
The U.S. state of Washington enforced capital punishment until the state's capital punishment statute was declared null and void and abolished in practice by a state Supreme Court ruling on October 11, 2018. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional as applied due to racial bias; however, it did not render the wider institution of capital punishment unconstitutional and rather required the statute to be amended to eliminate racial biases. From 1904 to 2010, 78 people were executed by the state; the last was Cal Coburn Brown on September 10, 2010. In April 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed SB5087 which formally abolished capital punishment in Washington State and removed provisions for capital punishment from state law.
Capital punishment was abolished via the legislative process on May 2, 2013, in the U.S. state of Maryland.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nebraska. In 2015, the state legislature voted to repeal the death penalty, overriding governor Pete Ricketts' veto. However, a petition drive secured enough signatures to suspend the repeal until a public vote. In the November 2016 general election, voters rejected the repeal measure, preserving capital punishment in the state. Nebraska currently has 11 inmates on death row.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Oklahoma.
Capital punishment is one of two possible penalties for aggravated murder in the U.S. state of Oregon, with it being required by the Constitution of Oregon.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.
Kenneth Biros was an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death and executed for the aggravated murder, attempted rape, aggravated robbery and felonious sexual penetration of a young woman. Biros was the first condemned person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States with the use of a single drug, setting a Guinness World Record.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Florida.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
John David Duty was an American who was executed in Oklahoma for first-degree murder. According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, he was the first person in the United States to have been put to death with pentobarbital. A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental led the state to incorporate the substitution into its protocol for lethal injections. Duty's case gained media attention because pentobarbital had typically been used to euthanize animals.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arizona. 95 executions have been carried out since Arizona became a state in 1914 and there are currently 111 people on death row. In November 2024, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that the state would resume executions in 2025 after a 2-year pause.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after Furman v. Georgia ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Montana.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Missouri.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
The execution of Robert Van Hook occurred on July 18, 2018, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for the 1985 murder of 25-year-old David Self. His case achieved notoriety because of his failed gay panic defense. Ultimately, his conviction was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and Governor John Kasich of Ohio rejected his bids for clemency.
The execution of Dennis McGuire occurred on January 16, 2014, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, in what was considered to be a botched execution. McGuire was executed via lethal injection using a new combination of untried and untested drugs: midazolam and hydromorphone. During the execution, witnesses reported that McGuire could be seen struggling to breathe, and reportedly gasped loudly while making snorting and choking sounds for at least ten minutes. It took over twenty-five minutes for McGuire to die, in a process that should normally take just over eight minutes.
These links are to official State of Ohio records regarding executions in the state and Ohio administrative rules and statutes pertaining to capital punishment in Ohio
