In Ohio, the numbers don't lie — and they're impossible to ignore.

Since 1981, the state has executed 56 people. In that same period, 12 men on death row were exonerated. That's roughly one innocent person for every five executed. And in 11 of those 12 cases, the wrongful conviction involved official misconduct — police or prosecutors who withheld evidence, coerced witnesses, or abused their authority.

This is a documented pattern.

Elwood Jones spent 27 years on Ohio's death row for a crime he did not commit. He was released in 2022. His charges were dismissed in 2025. The only reason he's alive today is that the state ran out of the drugs needed to kill him. That's not justice. That's luck.

Ohio hasn't carried out an execution since July 2018. Governor DeWine has stayed every scheduled execution since taking office, some of them more than once. Even the state's own actions signal what the data already shows: this system cannot be trusted with irreversible decisions.

The death penalty is permanent. Wrongful convictions are not supposed to be — but when someone has already been executed, there is no appeal, no exoneration, no way to make it right.

We are calling on the Ohio General Assembly and Governor Mike DeWine to abolish the death penalty in Ohio. Not to pause it. Not to study it further. To end it — because no justice system with a 1-in-5 error rate on its most final punishment should be allowed to keep using it.

108 people remain on Ohio's death row right now. Every day the law stays on the books is another day the state gambles with innocent lives.

Ohio can't get this right. The only responsible answer is to stop trying.

Sign this petition to urge Ohio lawmakers and Governor DeWine to abolish the death penalty once and for all.