Ohio has not carried out an execution in over seven years. Throughout this extended and unofficial moratorium, we have found unprecedented bipartisan support in Ohio’s legislature – and among Ohio voters – to repeal Ohio’s death penalty.
After a 2021 change went into effect exempting individuals with severe mental illness from death penalty eligibility, a new public debate emerged: does Ohio even need the death penalty anymore? During the several years it took to get this important piece of legislation passed and signed, conversations were sparked about the many irreparable problems with the death penalty including:
- Arbitrary application based on geography and race.
- Massive costs to taxpayers. Read more about the costs in Hamilton County alone.
- Lack of deterrence to violent crime.
- Wrongful convictions happen all the time – in Ohio there are eleven death row exonerees who spent a combined 216 years on death row for crimes they did not commit. The number of exonerations grows larger when we look at the cases where prosecutors tried to get a death sentence but failed.
- A growing number of murder victim family members do not believe the death penalty helps them heal.
Public opinion and legislator attitudes have shifted significantly.
A poll conducted by the Terrance Group the fall of 2023 found that 56% of Ohioans support replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In early 2025 at the start of the 136th General Assembly, legislation to repeal Ohio’s death penalty was introduced on the Senate. Repeal of the death penalty has become so well-known and inevitable that numerous types of repeal bills have been introduced in the House and Senate. Join us as we work to make Ohio the next state to end the death penalty.
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