Because the state continues to have difficulty procuring drugs used in lethal injection, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced today that he is issuing reprieves for two inmates that were scheduled to be executed at the end of this year and early next year.
James Hanna of Toledo was scheduled for execution Dec. 11 for killing his prison cell mate in 1997. His new execution date is now July 2020. Kareem Jackson of Columbus was scheduled to be put to death on Jan. 16 next year for killing two in a 1997 robbery. His new execution date will be in September 2020.
Hanna and Jackson's death sentences are the sixth and seventh executions DeWine has delayed this year as Ohio struggles with execution drugs.
"We believe Governor DeWine took the right action in issuing a reprieve rescheduling James Hanna’s execution date," Hanna's attorney David Stebbins said in a statement. "A reprieve was necessary in light of the ongoing difficulties the state is having obtaining execution drugs. We are grateful that Governor DeWine continues to take a thoughtful and serious approach to capital punishment in our state."
Ohio still has two-dozen executions scheduled through 2024 — though there is no clear path forward for carrying them out as of now.
Five years ago, Ohio prison employees injected convicted killer Dennis McGuire with a two-drug cocktail that was supposed to end his life quickly and painlessly.
It took 26 minutes for the mixture of hydromorphone and midazolam to kill McGuire — the longest execution since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999 — and witnesses reported the condemned man loudly gasping for air.
The incident sparked court challenges claiming the drug cocktail constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution and eventually led the state to issue a moratorium on executions until it could find a new cocktail of lethal drugs that is more humane. But the choice it settled on — which still contains the controversial drug midazolam — is now under question.
Midazolam can cause sensations similar to drowning, triggering an inmate's lungs to fill with fluid, a federal judge in Dayton pointed out earlier this year while expressing concerns the execution method could be unconstitutional.
Ohio officials are unable to secure the drugs necessary to put inmates to death via lethal injection, DeWine announced in August, and must cease using them or risk being unable to buy the drugs for other purposes.
Companies that sell the drugs have balked at the state using them for executions without telling them they were doing so and have threatened to cut off all sales to Ohio if executions using the substances continue.That could impact entities such as the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the Department of Youth Services, the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and others.
DeWine earlier this year delayed other executions as the state searched for a new lethal injection method.
Despite the federal judge's concerns, DeWine and state attorneys have contended that using midazolam isn't cruel and unusual punishment. They pointed to a ruling by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch arguing that since hanging wasn't considered "cruel and unusual" punishment when the Constitution was drafted, pain and suffering alone can't be used to block putting someone to death.
The dearth of drugs available for executions makes that legal battle moot, however, at least for now. DeWine said he would leave a decision about other execution methods — including the electric chair or firing squads — up to the Ohio legislature.
