Lawmakers discuss reviving death penalty in Ohio

SANDUSKY — Lawmakers in Columbus are discussing whether to revive the death penalty in Ohio by gassing prison inmates with nitrogen as a means of execution. House Bill 392, which would use nitrogen hypoxia to carry out the death penalty, is sponsored by state representatives Brian Stewart, R-Asheville, and Phil Plummer, R-Dayton. State Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, is a co-sponsor of the bill. State Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, has not taken a position but is a member of the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee, which is considering the bill. Ohio's last execution was on July 18, 2018, when Robert Van Hook was executed for murdering a Cincinnati man he met in a bar. When he met with journalists from Ogden News newspapers in January, including from the Sandusky Register, Gov. Mike DeWine said he doubts any executions will be carried out during the last three years of his term. The governor 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. Stewart and his allies are trying to get around that situation with a new method of execution, nitrogen hypoxia, which would kill inmates by depriving them of oxygen. On Jan. 25, Alabama used nitrogen to execute convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith. It was the first execution in the U.S. to use the method. "Nitrogen hypoxia is an alternative method for carrying out capital punishments that has been made available by legislatures in other states," Stewart said. "In federal court pleadings, even defense counsels have conceded that an offender executed by nitrogen hypoxia would 'be quickly, painlessly, and humanely rendered unconscious, followed rapidly by death.'" Ohio currently has 118 inmates on Death Row awaiting execution. The 118 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. He was sentenced to death in 2013. 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. The Register asked Click why he signed on to co-sponsor the bill. "Justice is delayed when the justice system is handicapped by extraneous and unnecessary obstacles. Victims and their families often suffer extended grief and the lack of closure when heinous crimes meriting capital punishment face delay after delay. Survivors should not be suspended in a perpetual state of grief absent closure due to bureaucratic obstruction," Click said. "If the state desires to eliminate capital punishment, there is a mechanism to do so. Artificial workarounds are unfair to Ohio's citizens. So long as it remains the law, the law should be enforced effectively and efficiently," he said. The Ohio House Government Oversight Committee held a hearing on the bill on Tuesday. Swearingen is a member of the committee, so he'll be asked to vote on the measure if it comes up for a vote. "I'm still reviewing the bill at this time," Swearingen said Wednesday. Swearingen said he doesn't know when the committee might vote on the bill. "I haven't been given a timeline on that," he said. House Bill 392's backers include Ohio's attorney general, Dave Yost. "No criminal penalty – capital or otherwise – should carry an empty promise of justice," Yost said earlier this month. "Ohioans on both sides of the death-penalty debate can agree that our current system of capital punishment is unworkable, and something needs to change." Quick and painless? A letter opposing the proposal has been sent to Swearingen and other committee members. The letter is signed by dozens of Ohio rabbis and other Ohio Jews. L'chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty, the group that organized the opposition campaign, argues that the proposed method of execution revives memories of the Holocaust. "Proponents of this bill suggest that replacing oxygen with nitrogen is a peaceful way to kill a prisoner, but what witnesses to the only such execution to have taken place describe is minutes of torturous terror," said Abraham Bonowitz, co-founder of the group. "The signers of this letter don't necessarily oppose the death penalty, however we cannot stand by while Ohio considers implementing a manner of execution that awakens the Nazi legacy of the Holocaust every time it is mentioned," Bonowitz said. First-hand accounts of the nation's only nitrogen execution also appear to challenge the notion that such executions cause no pain or suffering. According to journalists and witnesses of Alabama death row inmate Smith's execution in January, the inmate "shook in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements for several minutes at the start of the execution." "The force of his movements caused the gurney to visibly move at least once," the Associated Press reported. Those accounts led another Alabama death row inmate to file a lawsuit seeking to block the state from using the nitrogen execution method on him. Alabama's attorney general, Steve Marshall, maintains that Smith's execution was "textbook." Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this story.