Antonio Statement on Tennessee Execution Attempt

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) released the following statement after Tennessee failed to execute Christa Pike by administering two doses of a lethal drug:

All forms of capital punishment already qualify as 'cruel and unusual,' which is forbidden by our Constitution. To force any individual to be injected with two full doses of lethal drugs can only be described as state-sanctioned torture, said Antonio. This is the second time this year the state of Tennessee has failed to carry out a so-called ‘lawful execution.’ It is time we examine our flawed criminal justice system and acknowledge that the death penalty is not justice. As a society, we must be better than our most heinous criminals.

Antonio is the lead sponsor of S.B. 133 and S.B. 134, bipartisan legislation in the Ohio Senate that would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.