DeWine touts lethal injection system
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says he expects Ohio to present a federal judge with a proposed new lethal injection system within several weeks.
The Republican governor says the system will be different than the previous protocol. But he wouldn’t say whether it would contain the sedative midazolam, which has been used in several problematic executions.
DeWine said Thursday he anticipates court challenges as soon as the new process is announced.
The governor ordered the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in January to look at alternative lethal injection drugs. The announcement followed a federal judge’s ruling that said Ohio’s current execution protocol could cause inmates “severe pain and needless suffering.”
The governor postponed four executions to allow the development of the new system. January. Prosecutors have said Jenkins had sex with a teenager at his home and church office and that he recorded the acts with his phone.
Jenkins has maintained that he thought the girl was an adult. Crimes Against Children Unit obtained a search warrant to seize Pierce’s iPhone at the Southeast Side charter school on April 24, according to Franklin County Municipal Court records. Detectives found videos on Pierce’s iPhone depicting obscenity involving a male juvenile, the records state.
Authorities had no reason to believe that any of the school’s students were the subject of the obscene material, said Franklin County sheriff ’s office spokesman Marc Gofstein. The school reportedly sent home a letter to parents on the case.
The Ohio Power Siting Board on Thursday signed off on Hardin Solar Energy Center II, which will be in Marion, Roundhead and McDonald townships in Hardin County.
The project will be capable of generating 170 megawatts of power and will include a battery storage system with capacity of 60 megawatts. The project will be merged with the 150-megawatt Hardin Solar Energy Center I, which received approval in February 2018. Construction is expected to begin this spring, with operations slotted to begin in 2020.
Highland Solar Farm, planned for Clay and Whiteoak townships in Highland County, will be capable of generating 300 megawatts. Construction is expected to start this summer; operations are scheduled to start at the beginning of 2021.