The campaign to end the death penalty in the United States got an important new ally, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced his opposition to capital punishment and called on his state’s legislature to abolish it. For a Republican leader of a red state who was a longtime supporter of the death penalty, the change of heart may have outsize influence beyond Ohio’s borders, reported MS Now.
DeWine,
who is term-limited, is showing that opposition to capital punishment is no
longer just the preserve of liberals and progressive reformers. It has gone
mainstream.
DeWine’s
decision to call for the abolition of the death penalty marks something of a
sea change in his views.
Whether or
not the Ohio legislature acts on DeWine’s call and abolishes the death penalty,
the governor’s stance may help give political cover to governors in other
states who are convinced that it is long past time to move past the practice of
state-sanctioned executions.
As I have
argued previously, Ohio is one of America’s most important death penalty
states. The punishment is authorized by law, but it has been more than eight
years since the state carried out an execution. And it has
a long history of capital punishment, as well as a large death row
population.
That’s
part of why DeWine’s announcement has a chance to resonate widely, though he
has more to do. He needs to commute the death sentences of more than 100
people on Ohio’s death row. If and when he exercises that authority, his
example may encourage his fellow chief executives in places like California, Kansas and Pennsylvania —
each of whom also opposes the death penalty — to grant clemency to everyone
awaiting execution in their state.
Commutations
in all of those states would deliver a severe blow to capital punishment in
this country.
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