Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine Urges Legislature to End Death Penalty – No 'Moral Justification' for It
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is calling on state lawmakers to abolish the death penalty during his final year leading the state.
The governor made the remarks Tuesday during a news conference in Columbus, according to WSYX-TV.
“I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty,” DeWine said. “The legislature can take this action, and I believe they should take this action.”
DeWine argued that capital punishment no longer acts as a deterrent because executions take too long to carry out.
“With a more than two-decade-long wait time, the threat of a death penalty date is simply not a deterrent,” DeWine said.
He added, “I no longer believe that the death penalty is a deterrent for murder.”
According to DeWine, almost 400 people have been sentenced to death in Ohio, but only 56 have been executed.
“The long, long wait to see if the death penalty is carried out is frustrating and hurtful for these victims’ families.”
DeWine also said he no longer views capital punishment as moral.
“The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists,” he said.
Gov. DeWine said he now opposes the death penalty and is urging Ohio lawmakers to repeal it, saying long delays and low likelihood of execution have convinced him it no longer works as a deterrent.
Video: Anna Staver, https://t.co/a4YA4W2Cro pic.twitter.com/XyT1Y15eMO
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According to WSYX, he co-sponsored legislation in 1981 that reinstated the death penalty after serving as a prosecutor.
DeWine said he never pursued a death penalty case while working as a prosecutor.
DeWine has long faced criticism from state conservatives, who view him as a RINO, or a “Republican in name only.”
During his unsuccessful 2022 Senate campaign, former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel called DeWine a “squishy Republican governor.”
“This authoritarian state – deep state, if you will – is not just led by radical liberal governors like Newsom in California and Cuomo in New York, but even by squishy Republican governors like my governor DeWine in the state of Ohio,” Mandel said in 2021.
DeWine, who has represented Ohio in the House and Senate and served as his state’s attorney general, will leave office Jan. 11.
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