Ohio Reinstates Lethal Injection
The Supreme Court has held up the constitutionality of the lethal injection process. This means Ohio will return to executing prisoners who have exhausted the appeals process. No executions have happened in Ohio since late last May, due to a challenge brought against the lethal injection process that claimed it violated 8th. amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The challenge claimed the condemned would feel horrible pain during the process, but would not be able to express it due to the paralytic effect of the drug cocktail used.
Approximately 22 executions have been stalled due to this challenge.
While I am personally against the death penalty (a discussion for another day), I find it interesting that there is such a concern over how a condemned inmate dies. If the state sees fit to kill people, then I think it should be done in the most expedient and cost effective way possible. This only because no one is going to agree to execute the condemned in the same way they killed their victims, which I think is the only truly just way to do it. But Ohio law requires a “quick and painless” death for the condemned–thus the basis for the challenge.
This situation has also caused a backlog of cases which will now be sent to the Governor to review for possible clemency. Granting clemency in any state is incredibly rare, but the process in Ohio requires the Governor’s office to at least consider each case.
The Governor’s office is the last hope of reprieve for inmates on death row.
Kentucky has also recently reinstated its death row procedures, following the same challenge.
Columbus, Ohio, OH, lethal injection, department of corrections, death row, clemency, Governor Ted Strickland
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