Ohio Governor DeWine calls for abolishing the death penalty
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said the state should abolish the death penalty, telling a Columbus news conference on June 16 that “I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty” and urging lawmakers to repeal the 1981 statute or send the question to voters, according to Al Jazeera .
The reversal is notable because DeWine, 79, cosponsored that 1981 law as a legislator and once argued capital punishment deterred crime — a case he said “today” cannot “be successfully made.” Ohio’s last execution was in 2018, and DeWine has effectively maintained a moratorium by repeatedly postponing executions. His shift tracks a broader decline in public support for the death penalty — from 80 percent in 1994 to 52 percent last year in Gallup polling — and runs counter to the Trump administration’s push to expand federal executions.