Ohio lawmakers want to resume executions using nitrogen gas

Nitrogen gas, and more specifically death by nitrogen hypoxia, is an authorized practice in three states, according to the Associated Press, but has only been used once so far in the United States. For Stewart and Plummer, the widely available gas is answer to the shortage of lethal injection drugs that spurred Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to halt executions in Ohio since 2020.

“This has been used now successfully in Alabama. The officials who were involved in that execution said it went as they expected it to go,” said Stewart, who was asked if he had concerns surrounding reports that Alabama’s prisoner, executed via nitrogen gas last week, convulsed and pulled against his restraints for a portion of the 22-minute long execution.

Plummer, former Montgomery County sheriff and a lawman with over 30 years on the job, said this bill was very important to him. He cited a short list of Ohio death row inmates and their inhumane crimes.

“These are extreme cases. These cases have been through the system. Juries have convicted these people and sentenced them to death. We need some closure for the victims in cases like these,” Plummer said.

Ohio has about 30 death row inmates who have exhausted all appeals and await a date of execution, a backlog caused by DeWine’s pause in 2020. DeWine challenged the legislature to authorize a new way for the state to carry out capital sentences.

In 2014, the state executed Preble County’s Dennis McGuire for the 1989 rape and murder of Joy Stewart, a woman eight months pregnant. The state used a drug cocktail that had never been used before. According to this news organization’s media witness who saw the process unfold, McGuire quickly appeared to go unconscious before later convulsing, writhing, and gasping for air over 13 minutes.

McGuire’s execution led to a pause in Ohio executions as the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection protocol was debated. Executions resumed in 2017 using a different protocol, which saw three men put to death over the next two years. However, the state struggled to obtain the necessary drugs and had to fight extensive legal challenges before following through with the punishment.

Opposition

Some lawmakers have pushed for the state to do away with capital punishments altogether.

“It’s morally wrong. We should value all life,” said Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, in an interview with this news organization. “There should be one being that decides if you’re going to die, and that’s the Lord.”

Huffman, a devout Catholic, has been at the heart of two previous attempts over the past two General Assemblies. Each time, his bill was heard in committee, backed by proponents, and never heard again.

“My private conversations tell me that there’s about a third (of state senators) that would vote to get rid of the death penalty, there’s about a third in the Senate that wants to keep the death penalty, and then there’s about a third that really just doesn’t want to vote on it — they feel it’s a little too controversial — but probably leans to get rid of it,” Huffman said.

In his experience advocating against the death penalty, he said he’s found that many victims’ families prefer a simple life without parole sentence because it generally means fewer appeals, and fewer appeals means fewer court dates, and fewer court dates means fewer times the victim’s family has to relive a deep trauma.

Huffman is joined by Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, in his abolition attempts. On Tuesday, Antonio said she was “appalled” by Plummer and Stewart’s proposal and cited a survey that found a majority of Ohioans were in favor of repealing the state’s capital punishment law.

Dion Green, the Democratic candidate vying to run against Plummer this November, told this news organization that he would have opposed a death sentence even against the shooter who killed his father in 2019′s mass shooting in Dayton’s Oregon District. The shooter, who killed eight others, was shot and killed by police and never faced trial.

“Even through the experience I had to go through with the person that killed my father, I really didn’t want him to die that night,” Green said. “He had to be taken, because other lives would have been taken, but I wanted him to really sit in prison and learn what each family member (meant to others).”

Green, who was with his father that night, said capital punishment is a violation of “the most fundamental human right, and that’s the right to life.” He called it a “cruel” and “inhumane” punishment.

Support

Yost and two officials from the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association also spoke in support of the Plummer/Stewart bill at Tuesday’s event. They worked with the lawmakers to draft the bill, which has already seen 13 cosponsors in the House.

Yost, a former county prosecutor in Delaware, recounted a 2003 instance where he asked a jury to consider a death sentence for a man on trial for multiple murders.

“This is not an easy thing. This is not a casual thing. It’s not political football. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do to ask my fellow citizens to return a verdict that would result in the death of another human being,” Yost said.

That jury decided to sentence the culprit to death, who then repeatedly appealed the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld the state of Ohio’s authority to execute the man back in 2018.

“Since 2018, he’s had nothing left to argue about. And yet, he still sits on death row, 21 years later,” Yost said.

Yost argued that it’s abdication of duty for the state to maintain its limbo about capital punishment, and that the bill is necessary to bring peace of mind and a sense of justice to victims’ families.

While Yost staunchly advocated for a new way for the state to execute prisoners, he said he’d rather the state abolish the death penalty entirely than to continue its position of limbo. Ultimately, he just wants the state to take an official position and explain it to Ohioans.

When asked about his expectation for the bill, Stewart said he hopes it opens dialogue at the Statehouse and, given his expected support in the House, he’s hopeful it could become law by the end of this year.