Ohio governor postpones 3 executions amid struggle to find lethal drug suppliers

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine postponed three scheduled executions amid the struggle to find lethal drug suppliers, the office announced on Friday.

In a statement, DeWine said he delayed the executions, “due to ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.”

Nationwide, other states have delayed executions or implemented moratoriums over the inability to secure drugs or implement another execution method. More than 60 global healthcare companies have taken action to prevent their drugs from being used in lethal injection executions, said U.K.-based nonprofit Lethal Injection Information Center in a statement on its website. 

Oregon, Pennsylvania and California currently have moratoriums, according to the center’s data which lists injection protocols for 27 states plus the Federal Government. 

The center tracks legal filings against the use of pharmaceuticals in lethal injection executions and provides risk assessment on secrecy laws in states. 

Ohio’s three-drug lethal injection protocol took more than three years to establish and has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and delays since it was introduced. Drug suppliers and manufacturers have refused to let their pharmaceuticals be used in executions over the possibility it exposes inmates to “severe pain” upon injection.

DeWine has delayed executions previously; in 2019 he postponed the execution of Warren Keith Henness until the state could find a new protocol.  Henness, who was convicted for killing 51-year-old Richard Myers in Columbus in 1992 remains incarcerated, according to records from Ohio Corrections.

In 2020, and 2021, the state again postponed executions, according to the Lethal Injection Information Center. DeWine postponed the current executions which were scheduled for August, September and October of this year until 2026.