On February 13, 2025, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced he was postponing the three executions scheduled for 2025 and predicted that no one would be executed in Ohio for the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2027. The announcement made Ohio one of the country's de facto moratorium states — not through formal abolition, but through a practical inability to carry out executions that has persisted for years because pharmaceutical suppliers refuse to provide lethal injection drugs to state prisons.
Why Ohio Cannot Carry Out Executions
Ohio uses a three-drug lethal injection protocol, which requires pharmaceutical-grade controlled substances. Beginning in the mid-2010s, major pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe and the United States began refusing to supply their drugs for use in executions — either through explicit contract prohibitions or through export restrictions imposed by European Union member states that prohibit exports of drugs used in executions to countries that practice capital punishment.
Ohio's DOC has been unable to obtain compliant drugs since 2011, when it last carried out an execution. Every subsequent scheduled execution has been postponed — some multiple times — as the state failed to acquire the necessary drugs through legal channels. The pharmaceutical supplier refusal is not ideological resistance from Ohio officials but a supply chain problem that the state has been unable to solve for more than a decade.
DeWine: A Republican Governor Against the Death Penalty
Governor DeWine's announcement carried unusual political significance. DeWine is a Republican who has served in Ohio politics for decades, and his willingness to publicly predict no executions under his watch — and to advocate that the Ohio legislature consider abolishing the death penalty — represented a notable departure from the party's traditional position.
DeWine has cited both the pharmaceutical supply problem and broader moral reservations about state-administered execution. Advocates for abolition noted that Ohio's situation — a state that nominally retains the death penalty but cannot practically carry it out — illustrates the gap between death penalty statutes on the books and death penalty practice in fact.
Ohio's Death Row
Ohio has one of the larger death rows in the country — approximately 120 to 140 men have been under death sentence at various points, housed at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution for the condemned, which is distinct from the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) in Youngstown that handles the state's most restrictive general population. People on Ohio's death row have typically been there for many years or decades, as appeals — including state post-conviction and federal habeas corpus proceedings — play out over long timelines.
For families of people on Ohio's death row, the practical implication of DeWine's announcement and the drug supply problem is that executions are not imminent and may not occur for many years. Appeals processes should continue to be pursued — the drug supply problem does not foreclose eventual execution if it is resolved.
What the Legislative Future Holds
Governor DeWine's public advocacy for legislative abolition represents a meaningful shift in Ohio's political landscape on the death penalty. Several states that were formerly active execution states have moved toward de facto or formal moratoriums in recent years, and Ohio's trajectory — driven initially by practical supply problems rather than political will — may ultimately lead to formal legislative action in a future session.
ODRC headquarters: 770 West Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43222. Phone: (614) 752-1159. Website: drc.ohio.gov.