Ohio Governor Mike DeWine called on state legislators last month to abolish the death penalty in Ohio. DeWine stated that the decades it takes, on average, to carry out executions have rendered the sentence meaningless as a deterrent.

Sixteen individuals on Ohio's death row responded to inquiries regarding the governor's call for repeal. DeWine, who helped enact Ohio's death penalty law 45 years ago as a state legislator, has not overseen an execution during his two terms in office and has routinely stated that the drugs needed for lethal injection are unavailable.

Thomas Knuff Jr., a death row inmate convicted of fatally stabbing two people in 2019, said, "Nobody thinks: 'I'm gonna rob this gas station and shoot a clerk.'" Knuff added, "I'm sure some crimes of murder are planned. But those people never think they will get caught, so they never think about a death penalty beforehand." He also stated, "Lots of guys have been released over actual innocence from death sentences in America, and some were ultimately killed before DNA or other evidence cleared them." Knuff said, "Death is absolute. Death is final."

Grady Brinkley, a death row inmate convicted in 2002 of murdering his girlfriend, reacted to DeWine's timing. Brinkley said, "All he did was kick the can down the road for others to deal with. And, to me, that made him a coward!" DeWine's term in office concludes in January. He urged lawmakers to put the issue on the ballot for voters to decide if they do not repeal it themselves. Since 2011, Democratic legislators and some Republicans have proposed legislation to repeal the death penalty and implement maximum punishment of life without parole. Ohio has executed 56 people since 1981.