COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that the state should abolish the death penalty.
The governor spoke at length about capital punishment during a news conference in downtown Columbus.
“I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty," he said Tuesday. "The legislature can take this action, and I believe they should take this action.”
DeWine cited data indicating that it takes more than 20 years between sentencing and execution.
“With a more than two-decade-long wait time, the threat of a death penalty date is simply not a deterrent,” he said. "I no longer believe that the death penalty is a deterrent for murder."
He also said “certainty and swiftness” are essential with capital punishment. For example, how likely will a defendant be convicted, then executed? And how long after being sentenced to death will a defendant be executed?
The governor cited another reason why he doesn't believe in capital punishment.
"The moral justification I had for the death penalty no longer exists," he said.
DeWine was a co-sponsor of a bill in 1981 that reinstituted the death penalty in Ohio, after having served four years as a prosecutor in Greene County, near Dayton. In that role, DeWine said he pursued no death-penalty cases.
Of the 337 people sentenced to death in Ohio, only 56 have been executed.
“The odds are pretty good they’re not going to be executed,” the governor said. “The long long wait to see if the death penalty is carried out is frustrating and hurtful for these victims' families."
He also raised concerns about lethal injection, saying drug companies have threatened to cut off state hospitals if Ohio uses their drugs to carry out executions.