COLUMBUS – A veteran public defender from Columbus says Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine should delay all currently scheduled executions while the state comes up with a new lethal injection system.
Federal defense attorney David Stebbins calls DeWine’s Thursday decision to postpone three executions commendable but said more must be done.
DeWine on Thursday postponed the execution of Cleveland Jackson on May 29 until November 13; the July 10 execution of Kareem Jackson to January 16, 2020; and the execution of Gregory Lott, scheduled for August 14, to March 12, 2020.
With the delay of Warren Henness’ execution, announced in January, DeWine has now delayed four executions in total since a federal judge’s scathing critique of the current method.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Metz said Ohio’s use of the drug midazolam as part of the state’s current three-drug execution protocol would “certainly or very likely” cause Henness “severe pain and needless suffering” because midazolam would not render him sufficiently unconscious to prevent him from feeling the pain of the injection of the other two drugs or from the effects of the drugs, which the judge likened to waterboarding.
DeWine, a Republican, ordered the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to create a new injection process but Stebbins says there’s no guarantee that any system the state comes up with will be ready in time for the next scheduled execution in September.
Ohio has 23 executions scheduled over the next four years.