Death Penalty

A perennial bill to abolish Ohio’s death penalty got another hearing Wednesday morning, but there’s little time left for it to move this year.

Republican defense attorney John Rutan is running against Democratic Columbus City Councilwoman Shayla Favor to be the next Franklin County Prosecutor.

Ohio’s attorney general says the state’s death penalty is “unworkable” as is, and he’s backing a plan to make a major change to it.

The recent execution of a man in Alabama using nitrogen has led some states, including Ohio, to consider reinstating the death penalty.

Ohio outlawed putting down pets by suffocating them with gas, and all but a handful of lawmakers backed that bill when it moved through the legislature in 2022.

Some Republican lawmakers want to move executions forward for the first time since 2018—none have happened since Gov. Mike DeWine took office.

The bill's introduction comes just days after the state of Alabama used nitrogen gas to execute 58-year-old Kenneth Smith—becoming the first state to do so.

Alabama executed a man using nitrogen gas Thursday—the first time it had been used on an individual in the country’s known history. Ohio lawmakers may consider it.

State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are supporting a bill to do away with Ohio's death penalty and this time, it has more backing from conservative Republican lawmakers.

The latest Ohio Crime Report says the death penalty is costing the state millions of dollars because the law is on the books, but there haven't been any executions since 2018.