Ohio’s next execution of a death row inmate was scheduled for November 16. That date, like so many others, has been pushed back. It’s been five years since the state’s last execution, reports WOIO. State officials are calling the system “broken” as Ohio’s unofficial death penalty moratorium continues. Gov. Mike DeWine keeps pushing back execution dates for death row inmates as the struggle to find the drugs needed for lethal injection stretches on. There are 122 inmates on death row in Ohio, with 31 scheduled for execution. The average time an inmate spends on death row is now 21 years. Death row inmates are more likely to die from natural causes or suicide than lethal injection.
The Ohio Attorney General’s most recent Annual Capital Crimes Report, state officials said the death pently system "is not fairly, equally or promptly enforced .., Ohio’s residents and their elected leaders should make one of two decisions: Either overhaul the capital punishment system to make it effective, or end it." The report cited studies showing it costs at least one million dollars per inmate to keep them on death row, which is much more than the cost of life in prison. Ohio allows only lethal injection as a method of capital punishment The state is struggling to get the drugs needed from pharmaceutical companies. A bipartisan bill to abolish the death penalty was introduced in the Ohio Senate this year. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 states and the nation’s capital.