Ohio won’t hold any executions in 2020, as Gov. Mike DeWine issues three more reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Ohio won’t stage any executions for the rest of the year, as Gov. Mike DeWine has again postponed the execution dates of three convicted killers by two years or more.

It’s the eighth time since taking office last year that DeWine has pushed back execution dates due to state’s ongoing problems getting pharmaceutical companies to sell it lethal-injection drugs.

In a release, DeWine stated that he is delaying the execution date of Kareem Jackson from Sept. 16 until Sept. 15 2022.

He also pushed back the execution dates of Stanley Fitzpatrick from Oct. 14 until Feb. 15, 2023 and David Sneed from Dec. 9 until April 19, 2023.

The governor’s decision means that the next person set to be executed in Ohio is murderer Cleveland Jackson in January 2021.

Ohio hasn’t put anyone to death since Robert Van Hook in July 2018. DeWine said last year that there will be no more executions in Ohio until the state can resolve its continuing problems with finding a pharmaceutical company willing to sell drugs for use in executions.

The governor has repeatedly expressed his concern that if companies find that Ohio used its drugs to put people to death, they will refuse to sell any of its drugs (not just the ones used in executions) to the state. That would endanger the ability of thousands of Ohioans – such as Medicaid recipients, state troopers, and prison inmates – to get drugs through state programs.

Jackson was sentenced to death for murdering two people execution-style during a 1997 drug robbery in Columbus.

Fitzpatrick was convicted of murdering his live-in girlfriend, her 12-year-old daughter, and a neighbor in suburban Cincinnati in 2001.

In 1986, Sneed was convicted of fatally shooting a man in the head during a robbery in Stark County.

Source: cleveland.com, Jeremy Pelzer, June 5, 2020

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