After Pike's failed execution, Ohio lawmakers split over abolition or new methods
Two Republican lawmakers draw opposite lessons: one wants to abolish executions, the other to allow firing squads and gas. Neither expects action soon.
Symbolic image · Photo: JThorne / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Christa Pike's failed execution in Tennessee on Sept. 30 has revived the death penalty debate in Ohio, where executions have been on hold since 2019 and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine asked lawmakers in June to abolish capital punishment. Two competing bills are pending: House Bill 72 would abolish the death penalty, while House Bill 36 would allow any execution method the U.S. Supreme Court deems acceptable, including firing squads and toxic gas.
Republican Rep. Adam Mathews, a sponsor of HB 72, said the Pike case is another reason not to trust government with "this ultimate power," adding that "there's a bipartisan conversation going that recognizes the immense power that the state has." Republican Rep. Brian Stewart, a sponsor of HB 36, said that given problems obtaining lethal injection drugs, "Folks who are interested in this continuing to be carried out, I think, are probably open to other methods." He criticized a governor "determined to disregard these unanimous sentences from Ohio juries." Neither expects his bill to advance in the upcoming lame-duck session; DeWine leaves office at the end of 2026.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike's case was Tennessee's second failed execution in under five months. Seven people before her survived failed execution attempts in the modern era, but each was halted before any drugs were given; Pike is the first to survive the administration of lethal injection drugs. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused all executions for the rest of 2026. Pike was sentenced to death for the January 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.