Anti-death penalty advocates are reacting to comments from Governor Mike DeWine, who said in an Associated Press interview lethal injection “appears to us to be impossible from a practical point of view”. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
DeWine stopped executions after he took office last year, after a federal judge found Ohio’s lethal injection method to be cruel and unusual punishment. Abe Bonowitz with Death Penalty Action is cautious about DeWine’s comments:
“I believe the governor is exhibiting leadership. He hasn’t gone as far as he might have had to because of the lethal injection hangup.”
DeWine said there’s now an unofficial moratorium on executions because of the state’s inability to find the drugs needed to carry out the only death penalty method allowed under state law. And DeWine said lawmakers would need to change that. But Bonowitz is holding out for a bill banning executions of people with severe mental illness, and another that would end the death penalty entirely.