COLUMBUS – Ohio has delayed executions until 2017 and beyond because of problems finding supplies of lethal injection drugs.
The announcement on Monday means Ohio will go at least two years without putting anyone to death and marks another setback in efforts to carry out capital punishment in the state.
“[The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction] continues to seek all legal means to obtain the drugs necessary to carry out court ordered executions, but over the past few years it has become exceedingly difficult to secure those drugs because of severe supply and distribution restrictions,” said department spokeswoman Joellen Smith.
The state has not executed an inmate since 2014, when Dennis McGuire choked and took almost five minutes to die using a new lethal drug combination.
Smith says the dates of 12 inmates have been pushed into the future through warrants of reprieve by Gov. John Kasich.
The developments mean Ohio will not execute anyone until January 2017. Three others have been moved to 2018 and four to 2019. More than two dozen executions are scheduled nearly four years in the future, to August 2019.
Ohio has run out of supplies of its previous drugs and has unsuccessfully sought new amounts, including so-far failed attempts to import chemicals from overseas.