The reprieves underscore the persistent legal and logistical hurdles Ohio faces in carrying out the death penalty, a situation that has kept the state from executing any inmate since July 2018.
James Trimble, who was originally scheduled for execution on March 12, 2026, will now have a new date of March 14, 2029. Antonio Franklin’s execution, initially set for February 11, 2026, has been moved to February 15, 2029.
In a statement, Governor DeWine attributed the delays to “ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction… without endangering other Ohioans.” The scarcity of lethal injection chemicals, largely due to pharmaceutical companies blocking their use in executions, has effectively stalled the state’s death penalty apparatus.
The state’s struggle has prompted Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to advocate for legislative changes, including a proposal to introduce nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative execution method.
Crimes of the Condemned
Both men receiving reprieves are on death row for multiple aggravated murders committed decades ago:
* James Trimble was sentenced to death in 2005 for a shooting rampage in January of that year. He was convicted of the aggravated murders of his live-in girlfriend, Renee Bauer, her seven-year-old son, Dakota Bauer, and a college student, Sarah Positano, whom he kidnapped before killing.
* Antonio Franklin has been on death row since 1998 for the aggravated murders of his grandparents and his uncle in April 1997. Franklin killed the three victims with a baseball bat before setting fire to their Dayton home. He was later arrested in Tennessee while in possession of his grandmother’s jewelry and his grandfather’s gun.
As Ohio weighs new legislative solutions, the lengthy legal process continues. A condemned inmate in Ohio currently spends an average of more than 22 years on death row.