TOLEDO — “I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder.”
Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), in a news conference last week, declared that he no longer supports the state having a death penalty — despite, as a state senator, being one of the law’s original authors. Proof that, even with less than a year remaining in his final term as governor, DeWine still has the ability to influence moral and political discourse in the state.
“For the state to take a human life,” said DeWine, “there must be evidence that, in doing so, it will protect the public.”
DeWine argued that, equally as important, there must be evidence that someone will be deterred from committing a murder, knowing they could face the death penalty.
“The legislature can take this action, and I believe they should take this action,” said DeWine, calling for a ban on capital punishment. “But if the legislature does not want to make that decision,” he said lawmakers should “leave it up to a vote of the people of the state of Ohio.”
While the governor said “the moral justification” he had in supporting the death penalty “no longer exists,” not all of Ohio’s elected officials shared in his change of heart. State auditor and Republican candidate for attorney general, Keith Faber, made clear his disagreement with DeWine in a Facebook post.
“While I appreciate that Governor DeWine has come to his new position on the death penalty earnestly, I believe he’s wrong on this issue,” wrote Faber. “The current law has not been utilized. It should be. I’ll work with the General Assembly to identify constitutional methods of execution that can be implemented immediately.”
Faber is referring to the fact that, since DeWine took office in 2018, no executions have occurred in the state of Ohio. As Cleveland.com reported back in May, the governor “has maintained a moratorium” on executions, concerned that “pharmaceutical companies will retaliate” upon discovery of their product being utilized in an execution. While legislation to prevent that from happening has been proposed, it hasn’t been passed.
Ohio’s sitting attorney general, Andy Wilson, also differed from the governor — by whom he was appointed.
“Having personally handled several death penalty trials, I understand the value of the death penalty as an option for prosecutors and victims in very limited circumstances,” a statement from Wilson read. He said, in his experience, pursuing the death penalty is not a choice made “lightly” by prosecutors in the state. Wilson’s statement goes on to call the death penalty, “in a small percentage of cases,” the “only option” that can bring “a measure of justice and closure” to victims’ families.
Wilson’s statement continued, “I’m relieved that the governor didn’t use the power of commutation to undo the decisions of the prosecutors, juries and judges who are closest to the facts and evidence in these cases.”
He closed by saying that with the death penalty still law in Ohio, his office will continue to “uphold” it.
Wilson’s position received the endorsement of his predecessor, former Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who resigned back on June 6 to join Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Yost wrote: “I wondered how the new guy would react to his former boss’ public repentance on the death penalty. He stood his ground, and proved up again his prosecutor chops.”
In his remarks last Tuesday, DeWine, also a former prosecutor, prosecuted his case for the death penalty’s abolishment. He argued that the years-long gap between one’s sentencing and execution, if they even make it to that point, poses no immediate threat to perpetrators, and therefore, is a non-deterrent.
Additionally, while the governor acknowledged that the families of victims have varying views on capital punishment — from those who see it as a just consequence to others who find it an offense to the victim — a “universally held” feeling, he said, is that the long wait for someone to be executed drags out the pain of families.
One other pillar of the governor’s argument is the toll executions take on those tasked with carrying them out. Via his prepared remarks, the governor painted a picture of what it means to carry the weight of that feeling, quoting Gary Mohr, former director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (2011-18). DeWine read out Mohr’s recounting of an experience he had during the practice for an execution.
“On my first execution, I played (it was not play) the role of the condemned. As the process concluded, the team called for the medical staff to respond as I was experiencing extreme anxiety symptoms. Other team members in that role had similar experiences.”
The governor, as an alternative to the death penalty, said “our money and energies are much better spent” on keeping “repeat violent offenders out of society.”
While a number of high-profile Ohio Republicans publicly disagreed with DeWine, he did have a noteworthy supporter: U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno. In response to a question from the Statehouse News Bureau’s Sarah Donaldson, Moreno said: “I’m a believer that life begins at conception, all the way through natural death, so I’m, personally, not somebody who feels like the death penalty is something that humans should do. So, I support his moral point of view.” He added, “I believe it’s only up to God to end life, not humans.”
Advocates against the death penalty have also pointed to the potential for — and real-world examples of — wrongfully-convicted individuals dying for a crime they didn’t commit. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “Since the modern death penalty era began in 1973, at least 200 people have been exonerated from death row across the United States. At least 21 others who were likely innocent have already been executed.”
That same ACLU report found “official misconduct from police or prosecutors,” such as witness coercion, excluding key evidence, filing false reports, or allowing perjury, to be “the single most common factor in wrongful death penalty convictions” — a finding that was particularly true for Black death row exonerees. False testimony and eyewitness misidentification were cited by the ACLU as other common reasons for wrongful death penalty convictions.
So far, the governor’s push is unlikely to go anywhere in the Ohio General Assembly, at least according to House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima), who told the Statehouse News Bureau that while some House Republicans support ending executions, they’re not the majority. But with lawmakers out on break until November, any legislative effort would be forced to wait, regardless.
