“I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made, nor do I believe that there’s any chance in the future the facts that I’ve cited to support that belief will change,” the 79-year-old governor said during a news conference. “Therefore, I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty.”
DeWine has repeatedly postponed scheduled executions in the state over his seven years as governor.
During a news conference, he said data indicates the death penalty is not working as intended to deter crime, even as it brings years of pain to victims' loved ones and takes a toll on the mental health of state employees who serve on execution teams.
To bolster his case, DeWine brandished charts and graphs detailing the diminishing number of death sentences meted out by courts and showing the exceedingly long wait times that elapse as legal appeals play out for those on death row. He said condemned murderers are increasingly unlikely to ever be executed, sometimes dying by natural causes or by suicide before their execution date arrives.
“In summary, each decade that the death penalty has been in effect, the chances of a murderer getting executed get more and more and more remote,” DeWine said.
DeWine, who faces a term limit in December, said he felt compelled to share his observations now, having had 50 years of experience with the issue from the time he was a young county prosecutor, through being a congressman and U.S. senator, and then serving as Ohio's attorney general. But he said his outright opposition to the procedure has only crystallized over the past year.
