GOP Gov DeWine urges Ohio to abolish the death penalty, says it is no longer a deterrent

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, on Tuesday announced support for abolishing capital punishment in his state, reaffirming his change of heart on the policy he helped write as a legislator 45 years ago to reinstate the death penalty in Ohio.

DeWine, who has repeatedly postponed executions during his time as governor, pointed to data showing that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent to violent crime.

"For the state to take a human life, there must, in my opinion, there must be evidence that in doing so it will help protect the public, that the threat of that action will deter someone from committing murder," DeWine said at a news conference.

"I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made, nor do I believe that there’s any chance in the future the facts that I’ve cited to support that belief will change," he said. "Therefore, I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty."

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As he made his case, DeWine brought out charts and graphs showing the decline in both the number of death sentences handed down by courts and the quantity of executions being carried out. The data also showed the exceedingly long wait times as legal appeals play out for inmates on death row.

The governor said condemned murderers are increasingly unlikely to be executed, as they sometimes die by natural causes or by suicide before they can be executed.

"Even if the murderer is caught, indicted, convicted and sentenced to death, the odds are still pretty good they’re not going to be executed," he said.

"In summary, each decade that the death penalty has been in effect, the chances of a murderer getting executed get more and more and more remote," he added.

The last 10 people to be executed in Ohio had been on death row between 14 and 32 years, he said. Since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1981 under a law co-written by DeWine, 56 people who received the death sentence have been executed and 41 died by natural causes or suicide while on death row. Another 89 death sentences were overturned due to "judicial action" such as legal errors.

DeWine emphasized the years of pain for victims' loved ones due to the delays and the impact on the mental health of state employees who work on execution teams.

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"I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder," DeWine said. "The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists."

The governor, who is term-limited and cannot seek another term in the 2026 election, said he felt compelled to share his thoughts now after 50 years of experience with the death penalty issue, including as a Greene County prosecutor, a member of the U.S. House and Senate and as Ohio's attorney general.

However, he said his outright opposition to the death penalty has become solidified in the past year.

DeWine urged the legislature to abolish the death penalty or to leave it up to state residents to vote on the issue, although Republican House Speaker Matt Huffman has said he would oppose such an effort. Other supporters of capital punishment have argued that Ohio’s yearslong execution pause has denied justice to victims’ families and weakened the deterrent effect of death sentences.

DeWine has not authorized an execution since taking office seven years ago, citing, on numerous occasions, pharmaceutical suppliers’ unwillingness to provide the drugs used in lethal injections. Last year, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Justice Department to help states to resolve that issue. In January 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Justice Department to help states resolve that issue.

The governor has said he expects no more executions during the remainder of his term. Delaying executions has left Ohio with 30 scheduled over the next four years, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The state has not put an inmate to death since July 18, 2018, before DeWine took office.

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"The most important way to protect the public is to lock up violent criminals and to keep them out of society," DeWine said. "That is a proven way of saving lives and protecting our citizens. Our money and energies are much better spent focusing on keeping these repeat violent offenders out of society."

Currently, 27 states allow the death penalty while 23 states and Washington, D.C., do not, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Since 2019, including that year, three states have abolished capital punishment, while five states now authorize nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method amid ongoing controversy over lethal injection protocols.

At the federal level, Trump has pushed to expand executions. During his first term, 13 federal executions were carried out, which was more than any president in modern history.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.