01/30/2024

Ohio Could be the Next State to Use Nitrogen Gas in Executions

The state’s last execution was in 2018

Dave Yost, Ohio's Republican attorney general, put his weight behind a legislative effort Tuesday to bring nitrogen gas executions to the state, joining what could be a national movement in pro-death penalty states to expand capital punishment on the heels of Alabama’s first use of the method last week.

Three states, Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma, have already authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, and many more are looking for new ways to execute people because the drugs used in lethal injections have become difficult to find.

Yost said adding nitrogen gas as an execution alternative in Ohio could end an unofficial death penalty moratorium that Gov. Mike DeWine declared in 2020. The governor said at the time that lethal injection was "no longer an option" for Ohio because of difficulties finding drugs and repercussions the state could face from drugmakers if one of their pharmaceuticals was used in an execution. The state’s last execution was in 2018.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Associated Press.