Ohio death row quandary: 2 dozen executions, no lethal drugs

Source: Associated Press

Ohio death row quandary: 2 dozen executions, no lethal drugs
Andrew Welsh-huggins, Ap Legal Affairs Writer
Updated 10:41 am, Saturday, September 5, 2015

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The state now has two dozen condemned killers with firm execution dates, but with four months before the first one, it still doesn't have the lethal drugs it needs to carry them out.

The state's inability to find drugs has death penalty opponents calling for the end of capital punishment in Ohio. Supporters say the state needs to keep looking or find alternatives to provide justice for killings that are in some cases decades old.

"Rather than frustrate that process it would seem to me their goal ought to be to carry out that process," said Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien, who's contacted the prisons department, the attorney general and the governor's office for updates on their progress finding drugs.

One option he'd like Ohio to consider: nitrogen gas, approved by Oklahoma in April as an execution alternative.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Ohio-death-row-quandary-2-dozen-executions-no-6487043.php