Ohio Governor Mike DeWine opposes the death penalty, rolling back former aid | Death Penalty Issues

Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine has announced that he is now opposed the death penaltycalling for discipline that he helped revive in his government.

At Tuesday’s press conference, DeWine explained that, as a young and elected attorney, he already believed that. great punishment they can act as a deterrent to crime. But that argument, he said, cannot be reviewed.

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“I don’t believe the argument today can be well made, and I don’t believe there’s any chance in the future that what I’ve said to justify that belief will change,” said DeWine, 79. “So, I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty.”

The governor’s change of heart comes as he ends his second and final term. Under Ohio’s limits, DeWine is ineligible to run for a third term in the November midterm elections.

His change in public also puts him against the establishment of the Republican Party in the US.

In April, Republican President Donald Trump announced plans expanding the use of the death penalty at the federal level, including the use of firing squads.

Most Americans still support the use of the death penalty. But DeWine’s announcement comes at a time when the US public is increasingly skeptical about the punishment.

The research firm Gallup shows that support for the death penalty peaked at 80 percent in 1994 but has steadily declined over the decades to 52 percent in 2025.

That practice has been motivated by a combination of practical and ethical arguments.

Critics point out that black and Latino defendants are overrepresented in the death penalty system, showing bias in sentencing.

There are also concerns about wrongful execution. Since 1973, the Death Penalty Information Center, an advocacy group, says 202 people on death row have been exonerated.

The amount of failed execution it has also raised concerns about human rights. Some argue that the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited by the US Constitution.

DeWine, meanwhile, raised questions about the “certainty and speed” of justice. He said that it usually takes a long time for a person to be executed, and the chances of carrying out the sentence are low.

“Simply put, every decade that the death penalty has been in effect, the likelihood that a murderer will be executed increases,” DeWine said.

Ohio’s current death penalty law went into effect in 1981. DeWine, at the time, was a sponsor of the law.

But he and other MPs who voted for the law have changed their minds and are calling for it to be repealed.

The belief that the death penalty deters crime has also declined significantly in recent decades.

While 62 percent of people polled in 1985 agreed that the death penalty deters murder, Gallup found that 32 percent believed the same opinion in 2011.

The last execution in Ohio occurred in 2018, before DeWine took office.

As governor, he oversaw a moratorium on the death penalty by delaying scheduled executions. In 2021, he also signed a law banning the death penalty for those accused of serious mental illness.

In a statement Tuesday, he asked state lawmakers to consider repealing the 1981 death penalty law, or putting the issue to the voters.

“Legislators can take action, and I believe they should,” DeWine said. “But if the legislature doesn’t want to make a decision, they can leave it to the vote of the people of Ohio.”

Ohio Republican House Speaker Matt Huffman said in February that he would “vehemently oppose” any move to end the death penalty. DeWine admitted that he had spoken to Huffman, and is conflicted.

“Reasonable people, for centuries, have been on both sides of this issue,” DeWine said. “There are good people on both sides of this issue.”

Although 23 states have banned the death penalty, the death penalty remains on the books in many states, although several, including California and Oregon, have suspended the practice.

Trump, however, has also vowed to increase his use of capital punishment, reversing a ban put in place by former President Joe Biden.

Toward the end of his first term, Trump oversaw an unprecedented number of protests in the state. Thirteen people were killed from July 2020 to January 2021, a period of six months.