Failed Tennessee Execution Puts Ohio’s Death Penalty Pause in Focus

A failed execution in Tennessee has put lethal injection under a national spotlight. Ohio has its own history with the issue. The state has not carried out an execution since July 18, 2018. What happened in Tennessee Christa Pike survived an attempt to execute her by lethal injection on Sept. 30, according to Reuters. Tennessee gave two doses of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. Pike stayed alive. She was taken to a hospital and placed on a ventilator. Her attorneys said Oct. 6 that she was conscious and speaking. By Oct. 8, they said she was walking with help and eating again. Her attorneys said Saturday that she was released from the hospital and returned to prison, more than a week after the attempt. NBC News reported she is back at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville. Her lawyers said she will keep receiving medical care there and that they will track her recovery. Her death sentence still stands. Her attorneys have asked Gov. Bill Lee to commute it to life without parole. Lee suspended executions this year and ordered an independent review, and Tennessee’s prison chief resigned after the attempt. Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville and was 18 at the time. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1820. Where Ohio stands Ohio resumed executions in 1999. None have taken place since Robert Van Hook was put to death in 2018. DeWine took office the following year and has delayed every scheduled execution since January 2019. He has cited drug makers’ unwillingness to supply the chemicals used in lethal injections. In June, DeWine said Ohio should abolish the death penalty. “The moral justification I had,” he told reporters, “no longer exists.” He asked the General Assembly to act and said the question should go before voters if lawmakers decline. DeWine has said he expects no further executions before he leaves office. Attorney General Andy Wilson said June 17 that state law currently permits the practice. A backlog with no end date More than 100 men and one woman are on Ohio’s death row. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction lists 30 executions scheduled over the next four years, though postponements keep pushing those dates back. The wait between sentencing and execution now stretches past 22 years, according to a state attorney general’s report. More inmates have died of natural causes or suicide than by execution. Lawmakers have not moved. A bipartisan push to ban the practice and a competing effort to bring nitrogen gas executions to Ohio have both stalled. House Speaker Matt Huffman has said abolition does not have majority support in the Republican caucus. Northeast Ohio ties Donna Roberts of Trumbull County is the only woman on Ohio’s death row. She was convicted of conspiring with her lover to kill her ex husband, Robert Fingerhut, in Howland in 2001. She remains at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. A federal judge rejected her appeal in 2023. Ohio also has a failed attempt of its own with a Cleveland connection. In September 2009, an execution was called off after about two hours when the team could not find a usable vein. The inmate, Romell Broom, had been sentenced to die for the 1984 abduction and murder of 14 year old Tryna Middleton in Cleveland. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the state could try again. Broom died in December 2020 of suspected complications from COVID 19, before a second attempt. The region also holds a large share of the state’s condemned inmates. Five death row inmates committed crimes in Trumbull County and four in Mahoning County, according to state records. Why Pike’s case echoes Ohio’s Pike’s attorneys say they warned Tennessee about problems with her veins. That is the same issue that stopped Broom’s execution in 2009. What comes next The future of Ohio’s pause now rests with the General Assembly and the next governor. DeWine’s term is ending, and his call for abolition has no clear path through the Statehouse yet. FAQs 1. Does Ohio still have the death penalty? Yes. The death penalty remains state law, but Ohio has not carried out an execution since July 18, 2018. 2. Why has Ohio not executed anyone in years? DeWine has postponed every scheduled execution since January 2019, citing drug makers’ unwillingness to supply lethal injection drugs. 3. Does Gov. Mike DeWine support ending the death penalty? Yes. In June he said Ohio should abolish it and asked lawmakers to act or put the question before voters. 4. How many people are on Ohio’s death row? More than 100 men and one woman, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. 5. Who is the only woman on Ohio’s death row? Donna Roberts of Trumbull County, convicted in the 2001 killing of her ex husband in Howland.