{"id":191356,"date":"2025-04-01T20:57:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T01:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=191356"},"modified":"2025-04-01T20:57:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T01:57:37","slug":"yost-ohios-death-penalty-is-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/04\/01\/yost-ohios-death-penalty-is-broken\/","title":{"rendered":"Yost: Ohio’s death penalty is broken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLUMBUS — With Tuesday\u2019s release of the \u201c2024 Capital Crimes Report,\u201d Attorney General Dave Yost stressed that little, if anything, has changed in the past year to fix Ohio\u2019s broken and costly capital-punishment system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only thing that has changed? The killers got a year older,\u201d Yost said. \u201cThere needs to be some real progress \u2013 until that happens, Ohio cannot fulfill its promise of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Capital Crimes report, an annual statutory requirement of the Attorney General\u2019s Office, provides the procedural history and other information on every case that has resulted in a death sentence since Ohio\u2019s death-penalty law was enacted in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dave Yost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

From 1981 through December 31, 2024, the report says, 337 people have received a combined 342 death sentences. Of those, only 56 sentences \u2013 just one in every six \u2013 have been carried out, and none of those since July 2018, more than six years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio currently has 116 death row inmates facing a combined 118 death sentences. In 2024, one death row inmate was resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and three others were deemed ineligible for the death penalty due to an intellectual disability or mental illness. In June, one person was sentenced to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On average in Ohio, a condemned inmate spends more than 22 years on death row \u2013 mostly due to the numerous avenues for appeal \u2013 before an execution date is set. Just last week, a federal appeals court permitted convicted murderer Danny Lee Hill to file yet another challenge to his conviction and sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hill has filed more than 25 appeals since he was sentenced to die nearly 40 years ago for the rape, torture and murder of a 12-year-old boy in Trumbull County. The appeals court\u2019s decision requires a federal trial judge to review evidence that Ohio courts have already ruled should not affect Hill\u2019s conviction.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also contributing to delays is the reluctance of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide lethal-injection drugs for executions. In the report, Yost urges action from Ohio\u2019s elected leaders to break the drug impasse, saying that two possible solutions have emerged.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that states with capital punishment have access to the drugs needed for lethal injection. Yost welcomed the move in a\u00a0March 5 letter\u00a0to Bondi, saying that \u201cwithout the assistance of the federal government, Ohio\u2019s situation is unlikely to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Ohio lawmakers are considering\u00a0legislation\u00a0that would permit the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative to lethal injection. On March 18, Louisiana used nitrogen to perform the state\u2019s first execution in 15 years. Since January 2024, Alabama has carried out four death sentences with nitrogen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are two paths available to Ohio to enforce the laws on our books,\u201d Yost said. \u201cPick one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yost is seeking the GOP nomination for governor in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent staff\/submitted information COLUMBUS — With Tuesday\u2019s release of the \u201c2024 Capital Crimes Report,\u201d Attorney General Dave Yost stressed that little, if anything, has changed in the past year to fix Ohio\u2019s broken and costly capital-punishment system. \u201cThe only thing that has changed? The killers got a year older,\u201d Yost said. \u201cThere needs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 15:21:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191357,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191356\/revisions\/191357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}