The death penalty was – and always will be – a racist relic that tarnishes America’s already unjust criminal legal system. The modern use of capital punishment (although there is nothing modern about state-sanctioned executions), has clear and direct roots to slavery, lynchings, and Jim Crow laws aimed to maintain racial control in the years following the Civil War. During Black History Month, it's important to shine a spotlight on the stains of this institution over the last several hundred years; however, the death penalty is not just in the past, but very much in the present.
Although Ohio has not carried out an execution in nearly 8 years, death penalty laws are still on our books and are racially applied, prosecutors are still pursuing death penalty charges, and a new heinous method of execution (suffocation by poisonous gas) is currently being considered by the Ohio General Assembly. Governor DeWine continues to issue reprieves, delaying executions due to ongoing problems obtaining lethal injection drugs, but our capital punishment system is broken from start to finish and bolder actions for equality must be taken. As Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun said,
“Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statues, race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the biases and prejudices that infect society generally would influence the determination of who is sentenced to death.”
Abolishing Ohio’s death penalty once and for all would be a huge step forward for racial justice in our state, and the ACLU of Ohio has been urging state lawmakers to take this critical anti-racist action for decades. Over the past several years, the No Death Penalty Ohio coalition has championed bipartisan repeal bills, invested in polling to ascertain voters’ thoughts on this issue, launched advertising campaigns on Capitol Square, hosted countless events all over the state, and rallied thousands of supporters to contact their elected representatives to make their voice heard on this subject. While the Ohio legislature has the power to pass Senate Bill 133, which would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life without parole, they are not the only branch of government with options to address the failures of the system head-on. So, we look at the executive.
February would be a perfect month for Governor DeWine to make good on his promise that he’ll be “announcing” his public stance on the death penalty, a hint he’s been dropping for the better part of a year. Most recently, in December, DeWine said he would share his thoughts on this topic in January as he enters his final year in office. Well, January has come and gone; February is halfway over, and all who care about this issue are waiting with bated breath. We have yet to see if the governor will merely share his evolved thinking on this issue – which would still be a welcome gesture – or if he will use his unique gubernatorial powers to take substantive actions toward commutations. Ohio's Constitution enables governors to grant clemency without legislative or judicial interference. Commuted sentences are final. For the 110 people on Ohio’s death row as of February 2026 (about half of which are people of color), this would be the most meaningful action DeWine could take.
The counter-narrative to Black History Month is a new framework called Black Futures Month, to focus on systemic change through a forward-looking lens. Ohio elected officials have the opportunity to be bold, make history, and stand for racial justice. At the ACLU of Ohio, we know that the death penalty is ineffective, expensive, error-prone, and racially biased. State executions do not keep us safe, retraumatize victims, and above all else cannot be reversed. Our inhumane capital punishment system does not belong in the future we dare to create.