Ohio Speeds Up Execution Rate; Critics Say Mistakes Will Be Made

Ohio currently has a backlog of executions due to a temporary stay by a US Supreme Court case from Kentucky that challenged lethal injections. When the court upheld the process in April 2008, Kentucky and Ohio, amongst other states, resumed executions. With such a backlog now, the state has ramped up its rate of executions and will continue to do so until they are caught up.

Since June, the state has executed three people, and has at least one lethal injection scheduled for each month through the end of the year. Many of the 168 people currently on Ohio's death row were sentenced in the 1980's and early 1990's before life without parole was an option for sentencing.

Ohio public defender Tim Young said:

"This should never become ordinary, it should never become run-of-the-mill, it should never be a normal happening like the turning of a calendar page."

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, however, said that his office is prepared despite the burden that the accelerated rate of executions has placed on the judicial system.