House Bill 36, introduced in the Ohio Legislature by Republican Reps. Brian Stewart and Phil Plummer, proposes adding nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, replacing oxygen intake with pure odorless and colorless nitrous gas. Plummer and Stewart were not available for comment.
Although Gov. Mike DeWine said no executions will occur during his time as governor, many have expressed worries due to his term ending in 2026, according to the Associated Press. Earlier this year, Attorney General David Yost, an outspoken supporter of the bill, announced his bid for Governor.
In a news release from the General Assembly in 2024, Yost and other supporters voiced their reasons for the introduction of the bill.
“There must be accountability for offenders convicted of the most heinous crimes and prisoners who continue to flout the law behind bars,” Yost wrote. “The pursuit of justice is a journey, and closure remains elusive for victims’ families until a sentence is fully executed."
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Ohio was experiencing trouble obtaining the drugs used to carry out lethal injection without putting public health at risk in 2019.
Pharmaceutical companies said they were no longer willing to sell medicines to state agencies if they suspected they would be used for lethal injection as opposed to therapeutic use.
However, Yost noted the availability of nitrogen hypoxia as a way to eliminate the issue and add a more available option for the death penalty.
Opponents of the bill raised concerns regarding the humanity of nitrogen hypoxia, including Ohioans to Stop Executions, a non-profit organization aiming to dismantle the death penalty in Ohio.
Executive Director of OTSE Kevin Werner commented on the inhumanity of the death penalty and voiced his disagreement with the term “nitrogen hypoxia.” Werner said OTSE prefers to call the form of execution “nitrogen suffocation,” believing it to be more fitting for the act.
Werner mentioned Senate Bill 164, passed in 2023, which outlawed the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method to execute animals in Ohio. Werner said the passing of SB 164 indicates previous recognition of the inhumane nature of nitrogen hypoxia.
Nitrogen hypoxia was first used as a method of the death penalty in the U.S. in Alabama for Kenneth Smith in 2024. The state claimed the death would be painless. However, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, several witnesses said Smith suffered for an extensive amount of time before dying.
Werner also addressed problems with the death penalty being successful in preventing crimes, saying the death penalty distracts from the real problems in the criminal justice system.
Werner said innocent people are frequently sentenced to death, the death penalty is more expensive, and prosecutors apply the death penalty as a punishment in some counties but not in others.
According to Ohio’s 2024 Capital Crimes report, in some states, capital cases exceed the cost of life imprisonment cases by as much as $1 million to $3 million per case. If these estimates apply to Ohio, the extra cost of imposing the death penalty on inmates currently on Death Row ranges between $116 million and $348 million.
Werner raised concerns regarding the use of nitrous gas being dangerous not just for the inmate, but also for the employees administering it.
According to AP News, Alabama’s Department of Corrections required Kenneth Smith’s Spiritual Advisor, Jeff Hood, to sign a waiver acknowledging possible exposure to the gas.
“How is the state going to ensure that the (Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) workers and the witnesses and the media and everybody who has to be there in that room, how are they going to make sure that those people aren't put at risk and killed if there's a leak?” Werner said. “Nitrogen gas doesn't have an odor, it doesn't have a smell, so how are people going to be kept safe?”
The bill is currently in the House Committee, and if passed, would also restore confidentiality to drug manufacturers for lethal injection drugs, and extend that to nitrogen hypoxia providers.
