“The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists,” Gov. DeWine said today at a news conference during which he called on the legislature “to take action.”
The governor’s announcement was a surprise to some. He is a Republican, a party that, with few exceptions today, supports state killing. He is also a former county prosecutor. And, shortly after being elected to the state Senate in 1981, he cosponsored a bill reinstating the death penalty in Ohio.
But developments over the past years have suggested the governor was not the zealous death penalty advocate some other Republican governors are today. In fact, once elected governor in 2019, DeWine never signed a death warrant.
“We all make decisions based on the best information we have,” he said. What convinced him the death penalty should be abolished was the realization that it is not a deterrent. “For the state to take a human life there must be evidence that in doing so it will help protect the public.”
While the governor says he’s relying on cold, hard facts to take a moral stance against state killing, it takes courage and integrity, rarely seen in our leaders these days, to opt for morality and decency and to see that to do otherwise is cowardly and cruel.
On behalf of everyone at Death Penalty Focus, and our thousands of supporters, I thank Gov. DeWine for recognizing, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
Mike Farrell, President