Gov. Mike DeWine said he opposes the death penalty as it is not a deterrent against violent crimes, but faces an uphill battle to convince the state Legislature to either abolish it or put it in front of voters to decide its fate.

DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday: “I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists. For the state to take a human life, there must — my opinion — there must be evidence that in doing so, it will help protect the public.”

DeWine said there’s been a dramatic decline in the number of capital punishment convictions over the decades since the death penalty was reinstated in October 1981, thanks to a bill he co-sponsored, and that it took an average of 21 years from conviction for the last 10 people executed in the state to be put to death.

DeWine’s announcement didn’t come as a surprise. DeWine said back in December that he was rethinking his stance in favor of capital punishment and had said an announcement would be coming soon.

DeWine kept postponing the announcement, saying May 11 that he had planned to make the long-awaited statement that day, but delayed it to name Andy Wilson as the state’s next attorney general.

DeWine stopped executions in Ohio when he became governor in 2019, after a federal judge ruled on the same day he started his first term that the state’s drug lethal injection was inhumane.

DeWine has granted numerous reprieves since then and has said – and repeated Tuesday – that pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t sell other needed, therapeutic drugs to states that use lethal injections.

DeWine, however, didn’t offer reprieves to anyone on death row and declined to say Tuesday if he would do that before his term ends Jan. 11.

DeWine urged the Republican-controlled state Legislature to take action to abolish the death penalty, and if its members don’t want to do that, it should put the issue in front of voters for a decision.

Ohio Speaker of the House Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said in February he strongly opposed an effort to repeal the death penalty.

Four Republican legislators – three House members and a state senator – said Tuesday that they back DeWine’s efforts to abolish the death penalty. But nothing is introduced in the state House without Huffman’s approval.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, the longest serving county prosecutor in the state and a Democrat, said he disagrees with DeWine.

“You cannot deter anyone if you don’t enforce the law and we haven’t enforced the law since 2018,” Watkins said. “It’s my view that the death penalty, in the most severe cases for the worst of the worst crimes, is the proper punishment. The death penalty ensures the most dangerous offenders don’t reoffend.”

Watkins said: “Personal beliefs should be set aside when enforcing any law. The governor is entitled to his opinions. But my staff owes it to the survivors of victims to uphold the law. We need to have that penalty in our arsenal.”

Watkins said other states are carrying out capital punishment and the survivors of murder victims in Ohio deserve justice.

The death penalty was reinstated in Ohio in 1981 after being declared unconstitutional in 1972. But the state didn’t resume carrying out executions until 1999 with DeWine stopping them in 2019.

During the time when executions occurred, 56 people died by lethal injection in Ohio of the 337 people sentenced to the death penalty.

DeWine said during that time, 41 others died by natural causes or suicides with 89 death sentences removed based on judicial action.

The last 10 executions in the state took 21 years to carry out from the time a person was sentenced to death, DeWine said.

“These long delays have occurred in spite of the best efforts of the law enforcement departments that investigate the cases, the prosecutors who prosecute the cases, and the judges and juries who decide the cases,” DeWine said. “There is no prospect that these long delays will be substantially changed in the future.”