COLUMBUS, Ohio: Ohio politicians may be poised to consider whether the state might break its unofficial moratorium on the death penalty by following Alabama in using nitrogen gas to execute inmates.Ohio hasn’t executed anyone since 2018. In 2020, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declared lethal injection “no longer an option,” citing a federal judge’s ruling that the protocol could cause inmates “severe pain and needless suffering.”Republican state Attorney General Dave Yost scheduled a news conference Tuesday to discuss “next steps to kickstart” Ohio’s capital punishment system. He has expressed support for the nitrogen gas method used for the first time in Alabama last week, when convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was put to death with nitrogen gas administered through a face mask to deprive him of oxygen.The execution took about 22 minutes from the time between the opening and closing of curtains to the viewing room. Smith seemed to remain conscious for several minutes. For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints.State officials in Alabama said the process was humane and effective, while critics called it cruel and experimental.“Perhaps nitrogen — widely available and easy to manufacture — can break the impasse of unavailability of drugs for lethal injection,” Yost wrote on X on Friday, the day after Alabama executed Smith. “Death row inmates are in greater danger of dying of old age than their sentence.”Republican state Reps. Brian Stewart and Phil Plummer and the executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, Lou Tobin, were slated to join Yost at his news conference Tuesday. State Rep. Josh Williams, of Toledo, told Cleveland.com the GOP lawmakers are preparing legislation that would allow using nitrogen gas as a backup if lethal injection drugs aren’t available.Ohio’s last execution was on July 18, 2018, when Robert Van Hook was put to death by lethal injection for killing a man he met in a Cincinnati bar in 1985. His was the 56th execution since 1999.The state has since faced challenges finding the chemicals for lethal injection.
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