Ohio politicians may be poised to consider whether the state might break its unofficial moratorium on the death penalty by following Alabama in using nitrogen gas to execute inmates.
Ohio hasn’t executed anyone since 2018. In 2020, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declared lethal injection “no longer an option,” citing a federal judge’s ruling that the protocol could cause inmates “severe pain and needless suffering.”
Republican state Attorney General Dave Yost scheduled a news conference Tuesday to discuss “next steps to kickstart” Ohio’s capital punishment system. He has expressed support for the nitrogen gas method used for the first time in Alabama last week, when convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was put to death with nitrogen gas administered through a face mask to deprive him of oxygen.
They have had a long history of misadministering the lethal injection method, making that “painless death” inconceivably painful. It’s why the medical community refuses to be a part of producing or helping the death penalty machine perform lethal injections anymore.
It’s also why a mechanical “painless death” is being so propagandized now. Those supporting executions will find a way to make criminals suffer with any death penalty. The cruelty is the point, which is unconstitutional.