Former Ohio prisons director concerned about use of nitrogen suffocation in executions

The former director of the state’s prison system is concerned about a Republican-sponsored bill that would add nitrogen gas to the law requiring lethal injection to carry out executions in Ohio. And he also now has questions about the death penalty itself.

Gary Mohr supervised 15 executions as director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction under Republican former Gov. John Kasich, including the most recent one in July 2018.

Mohr said the way a person ends life is important, even if that person is sentenced to die for his crimes.

"I'm concerned that first of all that the method is a proven method that peacefully ends life, and I'm a believer that that should be the case and certainly not just for the condemned, but for the witnesses which includes, includes the victim's family as well as the family of the condemned and our team," Mohr said in an interview. “I'm not convinced that the way a person ends life with that, with nitrogen, meets my belief that that people shouldn't struggle. And staff that are responsible for executions shouldn't be responsible for watching and the administration of someone that is struggling to end life."

Mohr was required as ODRC director to be responsible for all decisions surrounding the condemned inmate and the execution for 30 days before it, and that protocol was backed up by U.S. District Court Judge Judge Gregory Frost, a federal judge who ruled on several cases involving executions in Ohio.

"I was very, very involved and, and I know that executions have had a big impact on me and continue to," Mohr said. "And I just believe that if the law continues with executions, the method should be peaceful."

Mohr has spent most of his career in the prison system. But Mohr said carrying out executions has had a huge effect on him, and that he’s now concerned about how the death penalty is applied, and to whom.

"I'm not convinced having been personally involved in not just executions but 50 years of this work and being a prison warden for 12 years and seeing other people who have life sentences with very, very similar types of acts that generated that sentence, I'm not convinced at this point that we're executing the worst of the worst," Mohr said.

Other people who were involved in carrying out the death penalty in Ohio have also come out against it since leaving those positions.

Former prisons director Terry Collins, who died in 2016, became an anti-death penalty advocate.

Former Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican who saw 24 executions carried out in his two terms, said he was "developing growing reservations about it." Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland, who was in office for 17 executions, said he feels the death penalty is "wrong" because "it's unevenly applied."

Source: statenews.org, Karen Kasler, January 31, 2024

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Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

Florida executes Dominick Occhicone

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Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Florida executes James Duckett

Double execution: 1st of 2 inmates is put to death in Florida Florida has executed James Duckett, a 68-year-old former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. The state is set to execute an 80-year-old man 6 hours later for a 1986 murder. Florida carried out the 1st double execution in more than 60 years, executing former police officer James Duckett and later scheduling the execution of 80‑year‑old Dominick Occhicone, amid Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive push to increase death penalties in the state. Florida has put to death the 1st of 2 inmates in the state's 1st double execution in more than 60 years amid an aggressive death penalty push by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

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Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

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USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

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Idaho | How Bryan Kohberger’s Guilty Plea Move Could Be His Death Sentence

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

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