Yost endorses new method for executions

VW independent staff/submitted information

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost believes it’s time to switch to a different form of execution in the Buckeye State.

Yost recently addressed members of the House Judiciary Committee and said Ohio’s capital punishment system is long-broken and costly, and added it reflects “a dishonorable abdication of responsibility” that could be resolved with legislative approval of nitrogen hypoxia for executions.

“An additional method of execution is necessary,” Yost said, testifying in support of House Bill 36, which would permit the use of nitrogen hypoxia for executions.

Currently, lethal injection is the only form of execution authorized under Ohio law, but Yost claimed in his testimony, “private drug companies are defying Ohio’s laws and vetoing public policy by refusing to provide execution drugs.”

Yost reminded committee members that the families of victims as well as Ohioans who served as jurors and made the difficult decision to sentence a defendant to death are counting on Ohio leaders to carry out the state’s capital-punishment laws.

Nine states currently allow lethal gas as a means of execution. Five of those – Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma – specify nitrogen hypoxia, which is inert gas asphyxiation.

Capital punishment in Ohio

Yost’s office issues an annual report on Ohio’s capital-punishment system. The 2024 edition notes that:

• Ohio’s last execution was carried out in July 2018.
• On average, a condemned inmate in Ohio spends more than 22 years on Death Row.
• From 1981 to 2024, 337 people received a combined 342 death sentences in Ohio. Only 56 of those sentences – one in six – have been carried out.