{"id":204430,"date":"2026-04-01T20:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T01:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=204430"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:02:14","slug":"yost-capital-punishment-gridlock-a-mockery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/04\/01\/yost-capital-punishment-gridlock-a-mockery\/","title":{"rendered":"Yost laments capital punishment gridlock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

COLUMBUS — With Wednesday\u2019s release of his eighth and final \u201cCapital Crimes report,\u201d<\/a> Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost renewed his call to end the unofficial moratorium on executions that goes back eight years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring my years as attorney general, not a single sentence has been carried out \u2013 a mockery of the justice system and of the dead and their families,\u201d Yost said. \u201cFor the worst-of-the-worst killers, Ohio is wandering in a wilderness of lawlessness and desert 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\n

From 1981 through December 31, 2025, the report says, 337 people have received a combined 342 death sentences. Of those, only 56 sentences \u2013 one in every six \u2013 have been carried out, and none of those since July 2018, more than seven years ago. In the same period, 41 inmates died of natural causes or suicide while waiting on Death Row. An additional inmate, Samuel Moreland, 72, died this past February, almost 40 years after he was sentenced for the murders of two adults and three children in Dayton.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Van Wert County currently has no active Death Row cases. The dates back to 1982, when John Spirko was sentenced to death for allegedly killing Elgin Postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger. His death sentence was communited to life in prison in 2008 by then-Governor Ted Strickland. Spirko, who will turn 80 in June and is imprisoned at the Marion Correctional Institution, continues to seek a new trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio has the nation\u2019s fifth-largest Death Row population, with 113 inmates facing a combined 115 death sentences. In 2025, one Death Row inmate died, another had charges dismissed and a third was deemed ineligible for the death penalty due to serious mental illness. No additional people were added to Death Row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On average in Ohio, a condemned inmate spends nearly 23 years on Death Row \u2013 mostly due to the numerous avenues for appeal \u2013 before an execution date is set. For the first time, the report includes a state-by-state comparison showing that Ohio ranks 12th among 28 capital-punishment states in the length of time that inmates spend awaiting execution.<\/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 reminds Ohio\u2019s elected leaders that pathways exist for Ohio to fulfill the justice it promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to restore the federal death penalty and secure states\u2019 access to lethal injection drugs. Ohio is awaiting that relief from the federal government, Yost said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the report notes that state lawmakers are considering legislation that would permit the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative to lethal injection. The Attorney General\u2019s Office fully supports the bill, Yost said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose on Death Row have had more than their fair share of due process \u2013 and second and third helpings of overdue process,\u201d Yost said. \u201cIt is past time that we do right by the victims and punish the monsters who killed them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to review active cases and data by region. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent staff\/submitted information COLUMBUS — With Wednesday\u2019s release of his eighth and final \u201cCapital Crimes report,\u201d Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost renewed his call to end the unofficial moratorium on executions that goes back eight years. \u201cDuring my years as attorney general, not a single sentence has been carried out \u2013 a mockery of the justice system and […]<\/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-204430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 06:13:16","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\/204430","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=204430"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204510,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204430\/revisions\/204510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}