Ohio | Midterm elections to influence death penalty future

The failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee calls attention to Ohio’s own death penalty laws, as the high-stakes governor race has the potential to end Gov. Mike DeWine’s almost eight-year-long freeze on any death penalty executions. 

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are currently 112 inmates on death row in Ohio, with the last execution occurring in 2018. 

DeWine has held an over 7-year-long, unofficial moratorium on state executions throughout his governorship by repeatedly issuing reprieves, which are temporary delays on executions. On Aug. 7, DeWine did so for 3 executions set to happen next year, pushing all of them to 2030.

According to the press release, DeWine issued the reprieves because the state was experiencing ongoing issues procuring the needed drugs to perform lethal injections, the only legal method of execution in the state, from pharmaceutical suppliers.  

“Governor DeWine is issuing these reprieves due to ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), pursuant to DRC protocol, without endangering other Ohioans,” the press release said. 

The outcome of the upcoming gubernatorial election has significant implications for the future of the death penalty in Ohio. The two candidates took differing stances on how they will address capital punishment if elected. 

Evan Machan, a spokesperson for Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, explained Ramaswamy’s reaction to the incident in Tennessee and his plans for the death penalty if elected. 

"What happened in Tennessee was blatantly unacceptable, and Vivek is committed to making sure that nothing like that ever happens in Ohio,” Machan said in an email. “He supports the death penalty only in the most egregious cases, applied only when the legal process has established absolute certainty regarding every element of the crime, the facts, and the law." 

Addie Bullock, a spokeswoman for Democratic candidate for governor, Dr. Amy Acton, said Acton would respect the current moratorium but would “take a hard look at the death penalty and will listen to Ohioans on this issue."

Amanda Cox, an associate professor of instruction in the department of sociology and anthropology, said the governor cannot solely repeal the death penalty, and the issue must go through the legislature. 

“A bill to repeal the death penalty has to pass through committee hearings in both the Ohio State Senate and the Ohio House of Representatives,” Cox said. “We have had multiple bipartisan bills to repeal the death penalty in Ohio, but none of them has been able to, up to this point, reach the governor's desk.” 

DeWine previously served as Ohio Attorney General and on judiciary committees in the Ohio Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. He once supported capital punishment, even co-writing the 1981 bill that reinstated the death penalty in Ohio. 

In a press conference June 16, DeWine said the justification for the death penalty as a deterrent for murder no longer exists. During the conference he provided data to back those claims up. 

“I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty,” DeWine said. “The legislature can take this action, and I believe they should take this action. If the legislature does not want to make that decision, they can leave it up to the vote of the people of the state of Ohio.” 

That is not DeWine’s only option, though; the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio is urging him to his use clemency powers on all Ohioans on death row. Clemency power allows the governor the ability to commute a sentence or pardon a criminal. 

“Typically, governors do that in their last days in office, so we could still see a blanket commutation or commutation of specific death sentences,” Cox said. 

However, when asked about using his clemency powers during the same June press conference, DeWine declined to comment and shifted the conversation back to what he discussed and how he came to that conclusion. 

Commutation is when a criminal sentence is reduced to a lesser sentence. It could be used by Gov. DeWine to move people off of death row and onto life without parole or another sentence. 

According to a Gongwer-Werth Legislative Opinion Poll released in June, 56% of Ohio’s legislators are in favor of repealing the death penalty, and 9% are uncertain. The poll also found that 56% of legislators are not in favor of the next governor resuming executions, with 5% being uncertain. 

Lawmakers who disagree with DeWine’s moratorium have introduced House Bill 36, a bill that would add nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative form of execution, according to a previous report by The Post. 

While the bill has yet to be passed in the House or Senate and currently sits in the House Judiciary Committee, it remains controversial. Cox said the bill could raise questions about the potential of painful and botched executions. 

“The bottom line is that this method, nitrogen hypoxia, as with all methods of execution, presents the potential for extreme pain and suffering, and botched executions for prisoners,” Cox said. “Nitrogen hypoxia specifically suffocates a person, so that's how they would die. They would die from suffocation.” 

Cox said this method would have risks in terms of the pain and suffering a prisoner would experience, including choking on their own vomit. She said a botched execution under this method could result in brain damage, stroke, and a persistent vegetative state. 

Pike’s execution was unsuccessful after she survived two doses of pentobarbital, and the executioners spent an hour trying and failing to place the IV used to administer the drug, according to the Associated Press. 

When a botched execution like Pike’s occurs, Cox said the public's trust in the government's ability to perform executions decreases. 

“Overall what we see is that not everyone, right, but many people, it causes them to question whether the state is capable of carrying out this sentence in a way that is efficient and constitutional and not in violation of the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment,” Cox said. 

Tamanna Shah, assistant professor of instruction in the department of sociology and anthropology, said the candidates who win this year's midterm elections will have a significant effect on the death penalty in Ohio. 

“The next governor and the legislature will strongly influence the direction,” Shah said. “It's a political issue at the end of the day but has very real social implications for not just families but also society in general,” Shah said.

Source: thepostathens.com, Jocelyn Duff, October 21, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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