07 April 2026 :
April 6, 2026 - Ohio. Ohioans to Stop Executions Report: every 5 executions, 1 is exoneration
New report details Ohio wrongful convictions, calls death penalty ‘profoundly unreliable’
A recent report has found that for every 5 death row inmates Ohio executes, 1 is exonerated.
Since Ohio reinstated the death penalty in 1981, the state has executed 56 individuals. In the same period, 12 people were exonerated, translating to a roughly 1-to-5 ratio of exonerations to executions, according to Ohioans to Stop Executions.
The nonprofit shared the findings in a March 30 report that claims the state’s death penalty system is “profoundly unreliable.” In addition to the death row exonerations in that timeframe, 12 people who initially faced capital punishment but were ultimately sentenced to life in prison were exonerated.
“The records of the 24 men exonerated after capital indictments are not ‘success stories’ of the legal system; they are indictments of it,” the report says. “They prove that in Ohio, the difference between a free man and a dead man is often nothing more than a lucky public records request or the persistence of appellate counsel.”
Ohio last saw an execution in 2018. Since Gov. Mike DeWine took office in January 2019, he has repeatedly issued reprieves, or execution postponements, citing ongoing issues with pharmaceutical companies’ willingness to provide drugs for capital punishment.
The report claims wrongful convictions stem from systematic weaknesses and failures, including misconduct by investigators or prosecutors, false accusations, misleading forensic evidence, mistaken eyewitness identification, false confessions and inadequate defense representation.
In Ohio, misconduct by officials was present in 11 of the 12 cases in which an individual was exonerated from death row. The misconduct ranged from withholding evidence to coercion of witnesses.
Nationwide, misconduct occurred in 70.5% of cases that led to a death row exoneration. The report states the rate is higher among Black exonerees, in which 78.8% of cases involved misconduct.
Elwood Jones became the 12th man exonerated from Ohio’s death row in December after he spent more than 26 years in prison. He was convicted of the 1994 murder of Rhoda Nathan, who was fatally beaten in her hotel room in Blue Ash.
He was exonerated after evidence revealed that the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office had failed to provide defense counsel with thousands of pages of investigative materials. These documents included information that Nathan had a highly contagious Hepatitis B infection at the time of her death, and that testing showed Jones had never been exposed to the virus.
The organization also claimed there are many individuals on death row with “compelling, documented claims of innocence,” including Danny Lee Hill, who was convicted of raping and murdering 12-year-old Raymond Fife. In his case, the state relied heavily on “bitemark” analysis, a forensic method that has been widely debunked, according to the report.
Ohioans to Stop Executions also pointed to the case of Anthony Apanovitch. DNA excluded him from the rape that justified his death sentence, but he was returned to death row because the test was requested by the prosecutor, and under Ohio law, only tests requested by the inmate can be used to challenge a conviction.
The report comes as Ohio lawmakers clash over the next steps for the death penalty in the state. While one bill is looking to outlaw the death penalty, another seeks to address the state’s lethal injection problems by legalizing executions by nitrogen hypoxia, a method that kills inmates through nitrogen inhalation, leading to suffocation.
“Many smart and well-intentioned people tried to fix the death penalty for decades, and yet Ohio still wastes millions of dollars on a punishment that is completely arbitrary, doesn’t deter crime and threatens innocent lives,” said Allison Cohen, executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions. “Claiming that the adoption of nitrogen hypoxia executions ‘fixes’ the death penalty ignores all of the systemic failures that have led to greater suffering for the families of victims.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has been one of the most vocal supporters of nitrogen hypoxia and resuming executions in general, arguing that the state has failed to keep its promises to the families of murder victims and jurors who were tasked with making the decision. Families of victims of those who are on death row have also spoken out, expressing disappointment and anger over the repeated execution postponements.
“During my years as attorney general, not a single sentence has been carried out – a mockery of the justice system and of the dead and their families,” Yost said in a recent news release. “For the worst-of-the-worst killers, Ohio is wandering in a wilderness of lawlessness and desert of justice.”
Currently, 107 men and 1 woman are incarcerated on Ohio’s death row, according to the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
