Ohio lawmakers are looking to use nitrogen gas executions to end a long-standing pause on executions nearly a week after Alabama used the method on an inmate.
The legislation – introduced by Republican state Reps. Brian Stewart and Phil Plummer and supported by Attorney General Dave Yost – would allow death row inmates to decide in writing if they wish to be executed by lethal injection or nitrogen hypoxia. Executions default to lethal injection if the inmate doesn’t make a decision. If the sentence “cannot be executed by lethal injection,” then nitrogen gas will be used, according to the bill.
Convicted killer Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed on Jan. 25 in Alabama – the first time in the nation that an inmate was executed using nitrogen gas.
Gov. Mike DeWine, who co-sponsored Ohio’s death penalty law as a state senator, recently told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau he doubted anyone would be executed during his tenure as governor. He said the death penalty − either reinstating it or ending it − wasn’t a top priority.