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WARREN -- Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, advocating for House Bill 392, which would permit the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method to carry out the state's death penalty, testified Tuesday before the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee.
The bill was introduced in January by Republican state Reps. Brian Stewart of Asheville and Phil Plummer of Dayton.
A news release from the prosecutor's office states Watkins appeared at the hearing
in Columbus, supported by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Louis Tobin, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association.
They argue for Ohio's stalled capital punishment system to resume.
In his testimony, Watkins said he wanted to see resolution for victims of murders committed by death row inmates, evoking the memory of some of Trumbull County's notable death row inmates like Stanley Adams and Danny Lee Hill.
Watkins discussed the plight of the victims' families, pointing out Miriam Fife, the mother of Hill's victim, Raymond Fife, 12, has been "twisting in the wind" for 39 years, waiting for justice after a number of appeals the prosecutor's office release states seems "never-ending."
The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to review an August 2023 decision by a lower court in the appeal of Hill. Doing so effectively denies the convicted killer a new hearing based on contentious, long-litigated bite mark evidence.
"I have been actively pursuing the death penalty in appropriate cases for over 40 years," Watkins said.
In regard to Adams, Watkins said, "This monster killer has not filed any appeals in more than seven years," Watkins said. "It is final, all that is left is for the government to do its duty and execute the judgment of the court."
The longtime county prosecutor urged the state to do whatever necessary to fulfill death sentences imposed on defendants by judges and juries across Ohio.
"If it includes nitrogen gas, I'm for it," Watkins said. "If it includes the firing squad, I'm for it." The release states Watkins said he wanted capital defendants to have more choices, as long as they are constitutional.
Watkins also recalled the 2009 case of death row inmate Kenneth Biros, who had been executed using a single drop protocole, coming after previous execution attempts in the state failed using the standard three-drug cocktail that year.
He then praised former Gov. Ted Strickland, someone Watkins said carried out the "last dying wish" of the victim's mother in the Biros case.
The release stated committee members raised concern about the novelty of the nitrogen gas execution method, but Watkins said a swift adaptation of the single-drug protocol in 2009 was the first use of the protocol in the history of the country.
"Don't worry about others. Do the right thing," Watkins said.
Yost told committee members the refusal by pharmaceutical companies to sell Ohio the necessary drugs was an impediment to administering the death penalty.
"Call it a private sector pardon," Yost said.. "It's preposterous, and it ought to be rejected out of hand. This bill will put an end to the stalemate and restore Ohio's sovereign power to act."
The release states Tobin highlighted polls showing the public to be in favor of the death penalty in cases where children are raped or murdered along with instances of mass or serial killings.
Tobin reportedly told the committee the disputed nitrogen hypoxia had been used to carry out death penalty cases in states like Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi.