Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has expressed support for the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a new method of execution in Ohio. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Yost called the state’s current capital punishment system “a dishonorable abdication of responsibility” and advocated for legislative approval of House Bill 36, which would allow executions by nitrogen hypoxia.
“An additional method of execution is necessary,” Yost said during his testimony. He noted that under current Ohio law, lethal injection is the only authorized form of execution. However, he pointed out that private drug companies are refusing to supply the drugs needed for lethal injections. According to Yost, “private drug companies are defying Ohio’s laws and vetoing public policy by refusing to provide execution drugs.”
Yost emphasized that both victims’ families and jurors who have delivered death sentences expect state leaders to uphold Ohio’s capital punishment laws.
Currently, nine states permit lethal gas as an execution method. Of those, five—Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma—specifically allow nitrogen hypoxia.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to help states with capital punishment obtain drugs required for lethal injection. In a letter dated March 5 addressed to Bondi, Yost welcomed this action and stated: “without the assistance of the federal government, Ohio’s situation is unlikely to change.”
The attorney general’s office releases an annual report on Ohio’s death penalty system. The 2024 report indicates that Ohio last carried out an execution in July 2018. It also notes that condemned inmates spend more than 22 years on Death Row on average. Between 1981 and 2024, a total of 337 individuals received 342 death sentences in Ohio; only 56 sentences have been carried out.
