Antonio Rejects Alternative Death Penalty Measures

Today, Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) responded to a Spectrum News report that Ohio prosecutors are seeking to resume executions using nitrogen hypoxia.

“Nitrogen hypoxia is untested, unproven and inhumane,” said Antonio. “Even the American Veterinary Association has long rejected the use of nitrogen gas as a method to euthanize animals. There is far too much uncertainty surrounding how a state would carry out an execution by this method and no scientific evidence to support its use.”

Nitrogen hypoxia is an untested execution method in which death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe in only nitrogen. In 2022, Airgas, an industrial gas distributor, announced its opposition to the use of nitrogen to end human life. No state has attempted to put an inmate to death by this experimental method. 

“We won’t go back to barbaric botched executions,” said Antonio. “We must be better as a society than our most heinous criminals. This is yet another example of why it is necessary to abolish the death penalty. The legislature should focus on passing Senate Bill 101, instead of suggesting grotesque experimentation.”

Senate Bill 101 would abolish the death penalty in Ohio and instead pursue life without parole for capital crimes. Senate Bill 101 has bipartisan support with joint sponsor Senator Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) and cosponsorship from more than one-third of the Ohio Senate, including Senators Blessing (R-Cincinnati), Craig (D-Columbus), DeMora (D-Columbus), Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo), Ingram (D-Cincinnati), Lang (R-West Chester), Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester), Roegner (R-Hudson), Smith (D-Euclid), and Sykes (D-Akron).

Senate Bill 101 now awaits further hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee.