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As states move to continue lethal injections, judges are tasked with weighing the credibility of medical experts and complex scientific testimony. Some experts say jurists are not always equipped to make these evaluations.
A Florida pharmacist serves as an expert witness on behalf of states defending their lethal injection protocols, helping pave the way for executions across the country.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (pictured) told reporters it is “pretty clear” that the state will not execute anyone in 2021. In a December 8, 2020 year-end interview with Associated Press, DeWine said the state has an “unofficial moratorium” on the death penalty as a result of its inability to procure lethal injection execution drugs and that legislators would have to choose a different method of putting prisoners to death before executions resume in the future. Ohio has not conducted an execution since July 2018, and DeWine said he did not think the legislature would consider switching execution methods to be a priority. DeWine’s announcement is the latest in a long series of death-penalty related developments in Ohio in 2019 and 2020. In January 2019, federal magistrate Judge Michael Merz, likening the state’s execution process to a combination of waterboarding, suffocation, and exposure to chemical fire, issued an opinion saying that executions under Ohio’s current drug protocol “will almost certainly subject [prisoners] to severe pain and needless suffering.” In response to that ruling, DeWine halted all executions in the state until the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction developed a new court-approved execution protocol. “Ohio is not going to execute someone under my watch when a federal judge has found it to be cruel and unusual punishment,” he said then.