COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sharply criticized the state’s stalled death penalty system Thursday, calling the years-long execution freeze a “mockery of justice” as he released his final Capital Crimes Annual Report.
Yost said Ohio’s death penalty remains “mired in gridlock” since no executions have been carried out during his tenure. He urged state lawmakers to break the deadlock by authorizing nitrogen hypoxia—a method recently adopted in other states—as an alternative to lethal injection.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Yost said in a statement accompanying the report. “Our capital punishment system exists in name only. The law promises one thing, but reality delivers another.”
Executions in Ohio have been on hold since 2019, when Gov. Mike DeWine placed an informal moratorium on lethal injections amid difficulties obtaining the necessary drugs. The pause has left more than 120 inmates on death row in legal limbo while the state continues to sentence some defendants to death.
Yost’s report outlines the scope of Ohio’s capital cases and calls for legislative reform to restore what he described as “credibility” to the process. He backed proposals circulating in the General Assembly to make nitrogen gas an approved method of execution, noting that states like Alabama and Oklahoma have already transitioned to it as an option.
While capital punishment remains legal in Ohio, no execution dates have been set, and the state’s death chamber has remained idle for seven years.
“The current system—where death sentences are imposed but never carried out—erodes faith in our courts and mocks both jury verdicts and victims’ families,” Yost said.
The attorney general, a Republican finishing his second term, has long supported keeping the death penalty as an option for the state’s most severe crimes. His report does not suggest eliminating capital punishment, but instead seeks to revive a process he contends has lost all credibility through inaction.