As of mid-2026, Ohio death row holds 109 people, but the state has not carried out an execution since July 2018. An unofficial moratorium, driven by the state’s inability to obtain lethal injection drugs, has frozen every scheduled execution indefinitely. The sentences remain in place. The machinery to carry them out does not.
Where Ohio Houses Death-Sentenced Inmates
Male inmates under a death sentence are held at the Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, a maximum-security prison in Ross County. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction moved death row there in early 2024 from the neighboring Chillicothe Correctional Institution, a medium-security facility that had housed the population since 2011. ODRC cited the higher security classification as a better fit.1Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Ohio’s Death Row to Relocate from Chillicothe Correctional Institution to Ross Correctional Institution
Female death-sentenced inmates are held at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, which was unaffected by the move.2Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Death Row
Executions themselves are carried out at a different facility: the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, in Scioto County. Inmates are transferred there shortly before a scheduled execution date.2Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Death Row The chamber remains equipped, but no one has been transferred to it for that purpose in years.
Why Executions Have Stopped
Ohio law designates lethal injection as the method of execution. The statute calls for a drug or combination of drugs “of sufficient dosage to quickly and painlessly cause death,” and it allows the legislature to prescribe another method if lethal injection is ever ruled unconstitutional.3Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2949.22 – Method of Execution of Death Sentence
Robert Van Hook was the last person put to death in Ohio, on July 18, 2018. In January 2019, a federal magistrate judge ruled that Ohio’s lethal injection protocol would “almost certainly” subject prisoners to severe pain and needless suffering. Governor Mike DeWine responded by halting executions, saying Ohio would not execute anyone under a protocol a federal court had found to be cruel and unusual. By late 2020, DeWine described lethal injection as “a practical impossibility” because the state could not obtain the necessary drugs. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have broadly restricted sales of their products for use in executions. DeWine said the moratorium would continue unless the legislature adopted an alternative method.
The pause is still in force. Execution dates continue to appear on paper, and the Governor issues rolling reprieves as those dates approach.
Legislation That Could Change the Status Quo
In January 2025, a state representative introduced legislation to authorize nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative execution method when lethal injection is unavailable. The same bill would restore expired confidentiality protections for drug suppliers.4Ohio House of Representatives. Stewart Introduces Legislation Providing Alternate Means for Capital Punishment As of mid-2026, the bill remains in committee.5Ohio Legislature. House Bill 36 – 136th General Assembly
A separate bill in the state Senate would abolish the death penalty altogether and modify sentencing procedures for cases that would otherwise be death-eligible.6Ohio Legislature. Senate Bill 134 – 136th General Assembly It is also stuck in committee. Neither side has the votes to move, and the moratorium continues by default.
Who Ends Up on Ohio Death Row
Only aggravated murder is a death-eligible offense in Ohio.7Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2903.01 – Aggravated Murder A conviction alone is not enough. Prosecutors must also prove at least one specific aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt, and that circumstance has to be listed in the indictment before trial. The circumstances are set out in Ohio Revised Code 2929.04(A) and include:8Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.04 – Death Penalty or Imprisonment – Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
- Killing the president, governor, lieutenant governor, or a candidate for those offices
- Murder for hire
- Killing to avoid detection, arrest, or punishment for another offense
- Killing while detained or after escape
- A prior purposeful-killing conviction, or a current pattern involving two or more victims
- Killing a law enforcement officer in the line of duty, or specifically targeting one
- Killing during or immediately after kidnapping, rape, aggravated arson, aggravated robbery, or aggravated burglary
- Purposely killing a child under thirteen
- An act of terrorism
If none of those apply, the death penalty is off the table no matter how serious the murder. When one is proven, the case moves into a separate sentencing phase in which a jury or a three-judge panel weighs the aggravating circumstances against mitigating factors the defense presents. A death sentence can only be imposed if the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating ones beyond a reasonable doubt.8Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.04 – Death Penalty or Imprisonment – Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
Categorical Exemptions
Two categories of defendants cannot be sentenced to death even if the crime otherwise qualifies. Under Ohio Revised Code 2929.025, signed into law in January 2021, a person diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or delusional disorder cannot receive a death sentence. Ohio was the first state in the country to adopt that categorical exemption.9Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2929.025 – Sentencing for Aggravated Murder When Offender Had Serious Mental Illness at Time of Offense The law does not affect the underlying conviction; it only removes death as a sentencing option.
Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia bars execution of anyone with an intellectual disability under the Eighth Amendment.10Death Penalty Information Center. Continuing Issues: Determining Intellectual Disability After Atkins
Conditions on Death Row
Death row inmates live under the tightest restrictions in the Ohio prison system. They are housed separately from the general population in individual cells. Ohio’s minimum standard for single-occupancy cells is 70 square feet.11Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Administrative Code 5120:1-10-04 – Housing Most of the day is spent inside those cells, with limited time out for recreation and other activities.
Any movement outside the cell requires escorts and physical restraints. Visits happen through video systems or behind glass rather than in person. Death row inmates are largely excluded from the work programs, communal dining, and educational opportunities available to general population inmates. Personal mail is opened, read, and copied at a central processing center before delivery, and family and friends cannot order books, magazines, or newspapers from outside vendors; those orders must go through designated facility staff. Legal and court-related correspondence bypasses central processing and goes directly to the institution.12Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. General Mail and Email
Appeals and Clemency
Every death sentence in Ohio triggers a mandatory direct appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. It is automatic. The appeal is limited to the trial record, and the court reviews whether the trial was conducted properly and whether the sentence is proportionate to sentences in comparable cases.13Office of the Ohio Public Defender. Death Penalty
After the direct appeal, an inmate can file a post-conviction petition under Ohio Revised Code 2953.21, asking the original trial court to consider evidence outside the trial record. Newly discovered DNA evidence, undisclosed prosecution evidence, brain damage or mental health conditions, and ineffective defense counsel are the typical grounds. The petition must generally be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed for the direct appeal, and any ground not raised is waived.14Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2953.21 – Post Conviction Relief Petition
Once state remedies are exhausted, an inmate can seek federal habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. ยง 2254. The petitioner must show that the state proceedings violated federal constitutional or statutory rights. Court-appointed counsel and investigative resources are available. The federal filing deadline is generally one year after state-level direct review is complete, though the clock pauses while state post-conviction proceedings are pending. These layers are why inmates routinely spend well over a decade under sentence before any execution date has meaning.
Clemency
When the courts are finished, clemency is the last option. The Ohio Parole Board holds a hearing and sends a recommendation to the Governor, but the recommendation is not binding.15Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Constitution Article III, Section 11 – Governor May Grant Reprieves, Commutations and Pardons The Governor alone can grant three forms of relief:
- A reprieve, which delays the execution date and can be extended repeatedly
- A commutation, which permanently reduces the sentence, typically to life without parole
- A pardon, which is extraordinarily rare in capital cases
The power comes directly from the Ohio Constitution and cannot be overridden by the legislature. In practice, the reprieve is what has been keeping the moratorium in place.
Exonerations
Since Ohio reinstated the death penalty in 1981, twelve people have been exonerated from death row. Another twelve who initially faced capital charges and were sentenced to life in prison were later exonerated as well. The most recent came in late 2024, when Elwood Jones was freed after more than 26 years in prison. Ohio’s exonerations include cases built on forensic methods that have since been discredited, prosecution evidence that was never disclosed, and DNA results that excluded the convicted person. Those cases sit at the center of the current debate over whether the moratorium becomes something more permanent.