DeWine Issues More Execution Delays as Ohio Enters Seventh Year Without a Death Sentence Carried Out
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Governor Mike DeWine has issued new reprieves for three death row inmates, further extending Ohio’s unofficial moratorium on executions that began when he took office in January 2019. With the state unable to obtain lethal injection drugs and facing legal scrutiny over its current execution method, DeWine has repeatedly delayed executions—without a single one taking place under his administration.
The governor’s latest action affects the following inmates:
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Timothy Coleman, convicted of murdering a police informant in 1996, was scheduled to be executed on October 30, 2025. His execution date has now been moved to September 13, 2028.
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Kareem Jackson, sentenced to death in 1997 for a double homicide, had been scheduled for execution on December 10, 2025. That has been postponed to October 11, 2028. This marks Jackson’s fourth reprieve from execution.
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Quisi Bryan, convicted of killing Cleveland Police Officer Wayne Leon during a 2000 traffic stop, was to be executed on January 7, 2026. He is now scheduled for November 15, 2028.
DeWine cited the state’s inability to procure execution drugs without risking harm to Ohioans as a central reason for the delays. Pharmaceutical companies have refused to supply the necessary chemicals to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, concerned that their drugs could be used for executions—triggering contractual and reputational consequences.
The governor has also pointed to a federal judge’s 2019 ruling that found Ohio’s lethal injection protocol could cause “severe pain and needless suffering,” raising constitutional concerns under the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“Ohio will not carry out executions until the legislature adopts a new method,” DeWine has said, describing the current protocol as “impossible from a practical point of view.”
Ohio joins 15 other states that have not carried out any executions in the past five years. The last person executed in Ohio was Robert J. Van Hook in July 2018, during the administration of former Governor John Kasich.
Since reinstating the death penalty in the modern era, Ohio has executed 56 individuals, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. With no alternative method yet approved and public debate ongoing, Ohio’s death penalty system remains in a prolonged legal and operational limbo.
