COLUMBUS, Ohio—Ohio lawmakers are trying to end the state’s years-long moratorium on executions by compelling state prison officials to seek federal help with obtaining long-sought lethal-injection drugs.

Under language added to the state’s massive budget bill on Tuesday, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction would be directed to “make every effort to acquire lethal injection drugs” in collaboration with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Prisons officials would be required to update lawmakers twice per year about the status of those efforts.

The state of Ohio hasn’t put anyone to death since 2018. That’s because Ohio, like other states, has struggled in recent years to obtain lethal-injection drugs from U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies, which have cut off sales on moral and legal grounds.

Gov. Mike DeWine has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since taking office in 2019, saying no executions will take place while he’s governor unless lawmakers alter state law to permit alternative forms of execution. Since then, bills have been introduced to authorize executions using nitrogen gas and to abolish the state’s death penalty altogether, but neither passed.

DeWine, a Greene County Republican, has repeatedly expressed his concern that if pharmaceutical companies find that Ohio used their drugs to put people to death, they will refuse to sell any of their drugs (not just the ones used in executions) to the state. That would endanger the ability of thousands of Ohioans – such as Medicaid recipients, state troopers, and prison inmates – to get drugs through state programs.

The governor, who’s term-limited in 2026, has told reporters that he’ll have some sort of announcement about the death penalty, but not until after he signs the budget bill into law (which usually happens around late June).

However, when President Donald Trump was sworn back into office in January, he issued an executive order “restoring” the federal death penalty (which was halted by the Biden administration in 2021) and empowering the U.S. attorney general to “ensure that each state has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”

In response, Attorney General Dave Yost, a Columbus Republican, wrote Bondi last month asking for help with obtaining lethal-injection drugs.

Yost, who’s running for governor next year, wrote that pharmaceutical CEOs and their boards of directors should not be allowed to “subvert our country’s laws based on their moral scruples.” He’s also repeatedly railed against Ohio’s death-penalty purgatory, arguing it leads the state to spend hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily.

Yost, in a statement, said he didn’t seek the budget measure. But, he said, “It’s a commonsense approach and I fully support it.”

It remains to be seen whether this new death-penalty measure — one of hundreds of changes Ohio House Republicans made Tuesday to the massive budget bill – will end up in the final budget that DeWine signs into law.

A DeWine spokesman declined comment on the budget measure Wednesday.

JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, didn’t directly answer when asked what, if anything, the department has been doing recently to search for execution drugs, as well as whether state prisons officials have been working with federal officials to obtain such drugs.

“Our department does not currently possess any of the execution drugs listed in Ohio’s execution protocol,” Smith said in a one-sentence reply.

Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

An Ohio polygamist, her husband and her four lovers were thrown behind bars after they allegedly kidnapped and tortured a 26-year-old man held captive in a hotel room for a week – in a sick revenge scheme hatched by the group’s twisted matriarch.

Martina Jones, 28; her husband Michael Esqueda, 28; and boyfriends Aaron Bradshaw, 49; Austin Bradshaw, 28; David Cessna, 26; and Chance Johnston, 27, were arrested on March 22 for terrorizing the victim at a Red Roof Inn in Maumee, according to the Toledo Police Department, WTVG reported.

The deranged lovers, who reportedly share multiple children, brutally beat the victim with a metal baseball bat, forced him to stand for extended periods of time, and only allowed him to eat and drink once a day over the seven-day stretch, police said.

The victim, who was also viciously punched and kicked, only slept for a total of 10 hours while he was held against his will, charging documents alleged.

“He was being essentially tortured, assaulted, over the time frame of a week,” Maumee Chief of Police Josh Sprow told the outlet.

“His injuries were results of being struck with a baseball bat, struck with fists, elbows, stomping on him when he was on the ground – which over time resulted in multiple fractured bones.”

Sprow added that Jones ordered her deviant beaus to abduct the victim on March 14 and carry out the nightmarish scheme as retribution following a scuffle at her home, the outlet reported. 

The victim told police a dog fight erupted at the crazed woman’s home that resulted in her breaking her arm as the pair tried to stop the brawl. Jones, however, lied and told her unhinged companions that the man crippled her limb, police said. 

The tortured man was eventually rescued on March 21 when his captors let him venture to a Speedway convenience store, where he was able to speak with someone who then called his mother, according to police.

“When she was contacted by this literally a stranger – she knew something was up,” Sprow said, adding that the victim’s mother raced to the hotel room and freed her son, whose body was littered with injuries, the outlet reported. 

“It’s clearly a strange situation when you have multiple adult men involved in a relationship with a female and then this whole felonious assault, kidnapping taking place. Definitely not something that is normally happening in our city.”

The six suspects were each indicted Thursday for kidnapping, three counts of felonious assault and two counts of tampering with evidence, according to Fox8.

They are each being held on $200,000 bond.

The Today in Ohio podcast called foul on what an Ohio lawmaker portrays as an innocuous tax proposal but could have far-reaching implications for reproductive rights in Ohio.

Republican Ohio House member Gary Klick has reintroduced his Stork Act — ” Strategic Tax Opportunities for Raising Kids — which would add “conceived children” to Ohio’s tax code as dependents eligible for exemptions up to $2,400. The proposal would also make baby items like clothing, pacifiers, and breast pumps tax-free.

But the Today in Ohio panel wasn’t buying the family-friendly packaging.

“This is kind of a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Lisa Garvin on the podcast. “On the surface it looks great and probably if a Democrat had introduced it, it might have gotten more support. But yeah, it’s about personhood.”

The timing hasn’t escaped notice. Coming more than a year after Ohioans decisively voted to protect abortion rights with an amendment to the Ohio constitution, the panel viewed the legislation as a backdoor attempt to establish fetal personhood—a legal concept that could be used to challenge abortion as homicide.

Said Chris Quinn: “Look, if he were serious about helping parents, we would be well beyond the child care support that we talked about for two years… This is pure nonsense from somebody seeking to outlaw abortion again, even though the voters have made clear that’s not going to happen.”

Quinn pointed out that childcare costs dwarf the expenses of cribs and baby clothes, yet Republicans have failed to advance meaningful childcare legislation.

“It’s more red herring nonsense from Republicans in the legislature who don’t really care about Ohio. They’re just pushing their silly dogma,” Quinn added.

Laura Johnston noted that despite the bill’s previous failure, its chances might be better with the current Republican supermajority.

The podcast discussion highlighted a pattern that many progressive critics have identified in Republican-led legislatures: intense focus on pregnancy and birth, followed by minimal support after children are born.

“These lawmakers are great about getting the kids to the point of being born and then they don’t care about them after that,” Quinn said. “They need to show that they care post birth, not just before they’re born.”

The bill had its first hearing on March 26, and while its future remains uncertain, the Today in Ohio team’s consensus was clear: this legislation is less about financial relief for expectant parents and more about establishing groundwork to challenge abortion rights.

Listen to the full episode for analysis of the proposal and how it plays into the battle over reproductive rights. Today in Ohio is a news analysis discussion by editors at cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer

Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from Today in Ohio, a news podcast discussion by cleveland.com editors. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.

Listen to full “Today in Ohio” episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.