DeWine delays remaining 2021 executions, citing continued lack of lethal injection drugs

Gov. Mike DeWine has postponed the final three executions scheduled for this year, citing no source in sight for the drugs Ohio uses for lethal injections and no immediate moves by lawmakers to change how the state administers the death penalty.

Timothy L. Hoffner, sentenced to death for the murder of his roommate in Toledo in 1993, had his execution date rescheduled to June 18, 2024, instead of Aug. 11 of this year.

John David Stumpf, convicted for murdering a Guernsey County woman in 1984, is rescheduled to face execution on Aug. 13, 2024, instead of Sept. 15.

Lawrence A. Landrum, sentenced to death for the murder of a Ross County man in 1985, will now face execution on Oct. 15, 2024, instead of Dec. 9.

A reprieve message Friday from DeWine cited “ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction” that are used in executions.

There are 140 inmates on death row in Ohio and more than two dozen executions scheduled through October 2024. The next execution is now set for Jan. 12, 2022 for Warren K. Henness, who was sentenced to death for the March 20, 1992, slaying of Richard Myers, a lab technician from Circleville.

Henness was convicted of luring Myers to his Columbus home under the pretext that he needed substance-abuse counseling from Myers, who frequently went to Columbus to volunteer his time. Henness then kidnapped Myers, shot in the head five times, cut his throat and then took his car, checkbook and credits.

Investigators said Henness and his wife and another man spent the next several days using Myers’ money to smoke crack and abuse other drugs.

Police found Myers’ body days later at an abandoned water-purification plant off Nelson Road. He had been gagged and his hands had been bound behind his back with a coat hanger. His ring finger had been severed, and his wedding ring was missing.

In addition to Henness, eight other executions remain scheduled for 2022.

Fifty-six men have been put to death in Ohio since the state restarted executions in 1999. Only three executions have been carried out since 2015, the last being Robert Van Hook in July 2018, following his conviction in a brutal 1985 murder in Cincinnati.

There have been no executions since DeWine took office in January 2019, and the governor has routinely postponed scheduled lethal injections, citing issues in obtaining drugs used in the procedure.

DeWine said late last year that lethal injections were no longer an option for Ohio’s executions.