Ohio governor delays 3 more executions amid inability to obtain lethal injection drugs

By Jay Croft, CNN

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday delayed the executions of three death row inmates amid continued struggles to find pharmaceutical suppliers for the state’s lethal injection method.

DeWine’s office said in a statement he was “issuing the 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 state’s last execution was in 2018.

In 2019, when he postponed a killer’s execution, DeWine’s office said prison officials couldn’t find a drug manufacturer for the method, after a judge ruled the previous protocol was cruel and unusual punishment.

Pharmaceutical companies told the state it would stop selling their drugs to Ohio altogether if they suspected any of their products were being used in executions, DeWine’s office said then.

Refusing other drugs was a danger to Ohio residents, DeWine said.

Friday’s action postponed the executions of three killers from August, September and October of this year to separate dates in 2026.

DeWine, a Republican, has issued similar delays for other inmates in previous years since the judge’s order. He put an “unofficial moratorium” on capital punishment in 2020 over the lack of drugs, affiliate WXIX reported. He said lawmakers should find another method of execution.

“The bottom line: Ohio’s death penalty is a farce and a broken promise of justice — and it must be fixed,” Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said after a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill to ban it last month.

The use and imposition of the death penalty in America saw a continued decline in 2022 as polls showed public support for capital punishment stayed near historic lows, according to a year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

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CNN’s Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.