Ohio still authorizes the death penalty for aggravated murder, but the state has not carried out an execution since July 2018 and currently has no supply of lethal injection drugs. As of May 2026, 109 people sit on death row under what has become a de facto moratorium, even though prosecutors keep filing capital charges and judges keep imposing death sentences. The death penalty in Ohio exists on paper and in courtrooms; it just isn’t being carried out.
The Only Crime That Carries Death
Aggravated murder is the single offense in Ohio that can lead to a death sentence. Under Ohio Revised Code 2903.01, a person commits aggravated murder by purposely causing someone’s death with prior calculation and design, meaning a studied, deliberate plan formed before the killing rather than a snap decision.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2903.01 – Aggravated Murder
The charge also reaches killings that happen while the offender is committing, attempting, or fleeing from certain serious felonies: kidnapping, rape, aggravated arson, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, robbery, burglary, terrorism, trespass in an occupied home, or escape. The death still has to be caused purposely. An accidental killing during a robbery does not automatically become aggravated murder.1Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2903.01 – Aggravated Murder
Federal constitutional limits narrow the field further for accomplices. The U.S. Supreme Court held in Tison v. Arizona that a felony-murder accomplice can only be sentenced to death if that person was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life.2Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Tison v. Arizona A lookout or getaway driver who had no reason to expect a killing generally will not meet that bar.
A conviction for aggravated murder by itself is not enough to put someone in line for execution. The prosecution also has to prove at least one statutory aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt, and the specific aggravator has to appear in the indictment from the beginning of the case.
The Aggravating Factors That Make a Case Capital
Ohio Revised Code 2929.04(A) lists ten aggravating circumstances. At least one has to apply before a judge can even consider a death sentence.3Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.04 – Death Penalty or Imprisonment – Aggravating and Mitigating Factors The ten include:
- Assassination of the president, governor, or certain other elected officials or candidates for those offices.
- Murder for hire, where the killing was committed in exchange for payment.
- Killing to escape detection, arrest, trial, or punishment for another crime.
- Killing while the offender was incarcerated or had escaped custody.
- A prior conviction involving a purposeful killing, or a current offense that was part of a pattern of killing two or more people.
- Killing a law enforcement officer engaged in official duties, or targeting the officer because of that status.
- Felony murder where the defendant was the principal offender in a kidnapping, rape, aggravated arson, aggravated robbery, or aggravated burglary, or acted with prior calculation and design.
- Killing a witness to prevent testimony or in retaliation for having testified.
- Purposely causing the death of a victim younger than thirteen.
- A murder that involved an act of terrorism.
Each one has to be charged specifically and proven on its own. A prosecutor who believes a case involves witness intimidation, for example, has to include that specification in the indictment from the start.3Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.04 – Death Penalty or Imprisonment – Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
How a Death Sentence Gets Imposed
Capital trials in Ohio are split in two. The first phase decides guilt: did the defendant commit aggravated murder, and did at least one aggravating circumstance occur? A jury has to agree unanimously on both before the case can move toward a death sentence.4Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.03 – Imposition of Sentence for Aggravated Murder
If the jury convicts, the trial moves into the penalty phase. The prosecution reinforces the aggravating factors, and the defense puts on mitigating evidence. To recommend death, the jury must find beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating factors. If it cannot, the sentence defaults to life imprisonment.4Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.03 – Imposition of Sentence for Aggravated Murder
Even if the jury recommends death, the trial judge has to do the weighing independently and write a formal opinion explaining the result. A judge who disagrees with the jury can impose life instead. The jury cannot override the judge in the other direction.
A defendant can waive the jury entirely. In a capital case, that waiver puts the case before a panel of three judges who handle both guilt and sentencing. Conviction and a death sentence both require a unanimous decision from all three.5Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2945.06 – Procedure for Trial by Court
What the Defense Can Present in Mitigation
Revised Code 2929.04(B) lists mitigating categories but also allows “any other factors” relevant to whether the defendant should be sentenced to death. The listed categories cover victim inducement, duress or strong provocation, mental disease or defect that impaired the defendant’s capacity to appreciate wrongfulness or control conduct, youth, lack of a significant criminal history, and minor participation if the defendant was not the principal offender. The open-ended catch-all is where most mitigation evidence actually lives: childhood trauma, military service, mental health history, substance abuse, and detailed life-history investigations.3Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.04 – Death Penalty or Imprisonment – Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
Who Cannot Be Executed in Ohio
Three categories of defendants are off-limits regardless of what the crime was.
Anyone under eighteen at the time of the offense cannot be sentenced to death. The defendant raises the age issue at trial, and the prosecution then has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was at least eighteen when the crime happened.6Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.023 – Aggravated Murder – Age of Offender This tracks the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons.7Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.02 – Murder Penalties
Defendants with intellectual disabilities are also exempt, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Atkins v. Virginia. Ohio courts use a three-part test: significantly below-average intellectual functioning (generally an IQ around 70 or lower), significant deficits in adaptive skills such as communication, self-care, or social interaction, and onset of those limitations before adulthood.
Serious mental illness is the newest exemption. Revised Code 2929.025, signed by Governor DeWine in January 2021 through House Bill 136, covers four diagnosed conditions: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and delusional disorder. The defendant has to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the diagnosed condition significantly impaired their capacity to exercise rational judgment at the time of the crime, and a judge decides the question at a pretrial hearing based on expert testimony.8Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.025 – Sentencing for Aggravated Murder When Offender Had Serious Mental Illness at Time of Offense
Why Ohio Isn’t Executing Anyone
Lethal injection is the only authorized method of execution in Ohio. Revised Code 2949.22 requires a drug or combination of drugs in a dosage sufficient to cause death quickly and painlessly, with a fallback provision allowing an alternative method if lethal injection is ever struck down.9Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2949.22 – Method of Execution of Death Sentence No alternative method has actually been authorized by law.
The last execution in Ohio was Robert Van Hook on July 18, 2018. Since then, pharmaceutical manufacturers have increasingly refused to sell their products for use in executions, and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has publicly acknowledged that it does not possess any of the drugs listed in its execution protocol. Governors have issued repeated reprieves pushing scheduled execution dates back, producing an unofficial moratorium that has now lasted more than seven years.
A provision added to Ohio’s 2025 budget bill directs the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to “make every effort to acquire lethal injection drugs” in coordination with the U.S. Attorney General, and requires the department to update lawmakers twice a year on its progress. The Ohio Attorney General separately asked the federal government for help obtaining the drugs. Unlike several other states that have moved to nitrogen hypoxia or firing squads, Ohio has not adopted any backup method, so the drug supply question is the whole bottleneck.
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 133, introduced in March 2025, would repeal Ohio’s death penalty altogether. It joins a long line of similar bills that have not passed the General Assembly.
Death Row Today
Ohio holds 109 people under a sentence of death as of May 2026. Male death row inmates are housed at Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe. Female death row inmates are held at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. Executions, when they occur, take place at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.10Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Death Row
Appeals and Clemency
Every Ohio death sentence triggers an automatic direct appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. That court reviews whether the evidence supports the conviction and the aggravating circumstances, whether the trial court properly weighed aggravation against mitigation, and whether the sentence is proportionate to sentences in similar cases. The defendant does not have to ask for this review.
After the direct appeal, a defendant can file for state post-conviction relief under Ohio Revised Code 2953.21, raising claims that could not have been addressed on direct appeal, such as ineffective assistance of counsel or newly discovered evidence. In capital cases, the petition has to be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed with the Ohio Supreme Court for the direct appeal, and the court must appoint certified capital counsel for an indigent defendant who intends to file.11Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2953.21 – Post Conviction Relief Petition
Once state options are exhausted, a defendant can seek federal habeas corpus review in U.S. District Court, with potential further review by the U.S. Court of Appeals and, in rare cases, the U.S. Supreme Court. Federal habeas is not a retrial; it examines whether the state proceedings violated federal constitutional rights.
If all appeals fail, the governor holds the constitutional power to grant clemency, which can take the form of a full pardon, a temporary reprieve, or a commutation to a lesser sentence such as life without parole. The Ohio Parole Board typically reviews clemency petitions and makes a recommendation, but the final call belongs to the governor.