Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who co-wrote the bill reinstating Ohio's death penalty over 45 years ago, has announced he now believes capital punishment should be abolished, citing a lack of public safety benefit and a loss of moral justification. "I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder," DeWine said on Tuesday, adding, "The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists."
This marks a significant shift for the 79-year-old governor. After Ohio's reinstated death penalty law was struck down in 1978, DeWine, then a newly minted state senator, helped craft the 1981 law that survived court challenges and remains in effect. Despite that legacy, DeWine has softened his stance in recent years, repeatedly delaying executions throughout his nearly eight-year tenure as governor. His call for abolition puts him at odds with national Republican leaders like Donald Trump, who has sought to expand the death penalty in his second term.
DeWine noted that in Ohio's last 10 executions, the average time between sentencing and execution was 21 years. "A lot of people think the response is to shorten the time between sentence and execution, but then we see how many times we get it wrong," warned Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan research organization. "When we take the time to thoughtfully review these cases, as we should, we find errors. And that takes time, and a lot of money."
DeWine urged state lawmakers to take action on abolishing the death penalty, noting that if they refuse, voters could make the call via ballot measures, which Ohio allows. Bipartisan bills to repeal the death penalty exist in both chambers of the Ohio legislature, but Republican leaders have refused to call them to a vote. A representative for DeWine's office declined to comment on whether the governor, who is term-limited and leaves office in January, would commute the sentences of the 114 prisoners on Ohio's death row.
Among death penalty watchers, DeWine's announcement wasn't entirely a surprise: he has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions and hinted for months he'd have more to say. "He understands the process probably better than any other governor in Ohio's history," said Kevin Werner, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions. "He's seen this from every conceivable vantage point - he's been very deliberate, very measured." DeWine's career includes stints as a prosecutor, state senator, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. Werner noted that DeWine's strong reputation among Ohio Republicans could carry real weight in nudging legislators, adding that each year, more conservatives say, "I agree, the system doesn't work."
In his remarks, DeWine also highlighted stories from murder victims' families who felt re-victimized by the grueling process, and from corrections staff burdened by carrying out executions - especially after high-profile botches like the 2014 lethal injection of Dennis McGuire using an untested drug cocktail. Ohio's last execution was in 2018, the year DeWine was elected governor.