Ohio unlikely to execute more prisoners anytime soon

SANDUSKY — Ohio has more than 100 prison inmates awaiting execution, including a Sandusky man convicted of murdering a young woman and her two young kids. But Gov. Mike DeWine doubts any will be put to death during the last three years of his term. Ohio's last execution was on July 18, 2018. Robert Van Hook was executed for murdering a Cincinnati man he met in a bar. Since then, Ohio has had what's been termed an unofficial moratorium on executions. DeWine discussed the state of Ohio's death penalty when he met via video conference last week with reporters and editors for Ogden Newspapers, including the Register. "You know, I don't expect executions before I leave office," the governor said. He explained that, under Ohio law, lethal injection is the only approved method of capital punishment. Drug companies have warned the state not to use any of their products for executions, DeWine said. "They could retaliate, which would impact our health department, other departments being able to get the drugs they need to help people in the State of Ohio," DeWine said. "So I've made that clear to the state legislature and told the state legislature that the only way that we could start executions again is if we change the law in the state which allows executions in ways other than lethal injection," the governor said. "The legislature has not taken any action and I don't see any indication they're going to." The 118 Ohio prison inmates awaiting execution, all convicted of aggravated murder, include Curtis L. Clinton, 52, convicted of the aggravated murder in 2012 of Heather Jackson, 23, Sandusky, and her two children, ages 1 and 3. In addition to his trio of murders, Clinton choked and raped a 17-year-old girl a week before the killings. He had previously served 13 years in prison for the strangling death of 18-year-old Misty Keckler in 1997. An Ohio Supreme Court ruling in 2018 upheld Clinton's conviction and the death sentence. Male death row inmates in Ohio are housed at Chillicothe Correctional Institution. The sole woman facing the death penalty in Ohio, Donna Marie Roberts, is at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. Roberts, a Youngstown native, was convicted of complicity in aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the 2001 killing of her ex-husband, Robert Fingerhut. The murder was carried out by Nathaniel Jackson, who is also on death row.