Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine calls for end to death penalty, reversing decades-old stance

A gradual reversal

Governor Mike DeWine completed a long shift in his position on capital punishment during a news conference on Tuesday, stating plainly that Ohio should abolish the death penalty. As a young state senator in the early 1980s, DeWine was instrumental in writing the law that restored executions in Ohio after a brief hiatus. Now, at 79 and in his final months in office, he says the evidence no longer supports the practice.

The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists.

DeWine has repeatedly postponed scheduled executions throughout his nearly eight-year tenure, citing an inability to obtain the drugs used in lethal injections. He said on Tuesday that he expects no executions to occur before his term ends in January.

Data and deterrence

The governor based his new position on what he described as a clear conclusion from federal and state data: the death penalty does not deter violent crime. He pointed to the increasingly rare use of capital punishment in Ohio. Courts are handing down fewer death sentences, just two in the last six years, DeWine said, while the wait between sentencing and execution now averages more than two decades.

Of the more than 100 inmates currently on Ohio's death row, wait times stretch as far as 2029 for some scheduled executions. According to DeWine, fewer than a fifth of all people sentenced to death since 1981 have actually been executed. In the interim, 89 inmates have been removed from death row by court decisions, and dozens have died of natural causes or suicide.

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.

Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, warned that thorough case reviews often uncover errors, which requires time and considerable expense.

Political resistance at home

DeWine's call for abolition puts him at odds with prominent Republicans in his state and in Washington. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman said in February he would "vigorously oppose" any legislative repeal effort, and Republican lawmakers have shown little interest in advancing bipartisan bills that would end the death penalty.

Former Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a supporter of capital punishment, has argued that the effective moratorium under DeWine has made "a mockery of the justice system."

For the worst-of-the-worst killers, Ohio is wandering in a wilderness of lawlessness and desert of justice.

Any path to abolition through the legislature appears unlikely. DeWine noted that if lawmakers refuse to act, voters could use the state's citizen-initiated ballot measure process to amend the constitution. A representative for the governor declined to say whether he plans to commute the sentences of the 114 prisoners on death row before leaving office.

National landscape

The Ohio governor's announcement aligns with a broader national trend away from the death penalty, even as it places him against the current president. Just hours into his second term, President Donald Trump directed his attorney general to help states secure lethal injection drugs, calling capital punishment an "essential tool." Public support has also declined, with Gallup recording a drop from 80 percent in 1994 to 52 percent in 2025.

Other states have already abandoned the punishment. New Hampshire lawmakers overrode a governor's veto to abolish it in 2019, followed by Colorado in 2020 and Virginia in 2021. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has urged legislators to follow suit, and Oregon's governor commuted the sentences of all 17 people on death row in 2022. Ohio has not executed anyone since July 2018.