COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)–Inmates will continue to sit on Ohio’s Death Row as the state delays all executions at least another year.
On Monday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich used reprieves to move 11 executions scheduled next year and one in early 2017 further into the future. Ohio now has 25 inmates scheduled to die, including some in 2019.
Ohio’s prison agency said it needs more time to find drugs. It hasn’t executed anyone since January 2014.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien convicted three killers who have had their execution dates pushed back in the latest round of delays.
“You have people convicted decades ago. There is no question about their guilt.”
Alva Campbell Jr., Warren Henness, and Kareem Jackson were all supposed to be executed in 2016. Campbell has a new execution date in January of 2017. Henness is set to die in February of 2018. Kareem Jackson’s execution date has been delayed almost three years, now July of 2019.
O’Brien explains, “They have been in 20 years of post-conviction litigation, appeals, delays, habeaus corpus. Now the US Supreme Court has said ‘Carry out your sentence Ohio’ and Ohio is helpless, helpless to carry out that sentence.”
Ohio is having trouble obtaining the drugs the state uses in its lethal injections. The supply has dried up in the United States so Ohio looked to purchase the chemicals overseas. But, the federal government stepped in. The Food and Drug Administration has stopped all states from importing the needed chemicals from overseas.
“It’s de facto repeal of the death penalty,” O’Brien said.
Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction recently asked the FDA to reconsider its ban on importing these needed lethal injection drugs from overseas. NBC4 obtained a letter sent just days ago to the FDA outlining legal reasoning that would allow the state to buy and import much needed drugs. There is no timetable on when or if the FDA will amend its previous decision.
O’Brien also says Ohio could speed up its executions by changing the method of execution. The state could use the electric chair, hanging, or even a firing squad, but these changes would require state lawmakers to pass a bill and the governor would need to sign it.