COLUMBUS, Ohio — With the release of the “2024 Capital Crimes Report” on Tuesday, April 1, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost stressed that little, if anything, has changed in the past year to fix what he calls Ohio’s broken and costly capital-punishment system.
“The only thing that has changed? The killers got a year older,” Yost said. “There needs to be some real progress – until that happens, Ohio cannot fulfill its promise of justice.”
The Capital Crimes report, an annual statutory requirement of the Attorney General’s Office, provides the procedural history and other information on every case that has resulted in a death sentence since Ohio’s death-penalty law was enacted in 1981.
From 1981 through Dec. 31, 2024, the report says, 337 people have received a combined 342 death sentences. Of those, only 56 sentences – just one in every six – have been carried out, and none of those since July 2018, more than six years ago.
Ohio currently has 116 Death Row inmates facing a combined 118 death sentences. In 2024, one Death Row inmate was resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and three others were deemed ineligible for the death penalty due to an intellectual disability or mental illness. In June, one person was sentenced to death.
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On average in Ohio, a condemned inmate spends more than 22 years on Death Row – mostly due to the numerous avenues for appeal – before an execution date is set. Just last week, a federal appeals court permitted convicted murderer Danny Lee Hill to file yet another challenge to his conviction and sentence.
Hill has filed more than 25 appeals since he was sentenced to die nearly 40 years ago for the rape, torture and murder of a 12-year-old boy in Trumbull County. The appeals court’s decision requires a federal trial judge to review evidence that Ohio courts have already ruled should not affect Hill’s conviction.
Also contributing to delays is the reluctance of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide lethal-injection drugs for executions. In the report, Yost urges action from Ohio’s elected leaders to break the drug impasse, saying that two possible solutions have emerged.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that states with capital punishment have access to the drugs needed for lethal injection. Yost welcomed the move in a March 5 letter to Bondi, saying that “without the assistance of the federal government, Ohio’s situation is unlikely to change.”
Additionally, Ohio lawmakers are considering legislation that would permit the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative to lethal injection. On March 18, Louisiana used nitrogen to perform the state’s first execution in 15 years. Since January 2024, Alabama has carried out four death sentences with nitrogen.
“There are two paths available to Ohio to enforce the laws on our books,” Yost said. “Pick one.”
The 2024 Capital Crimes Report is available on the attorney general’s website.
