Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, was shocked by the recent botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee.
asserted
Ramaswamy → shock → Tennessee
“It’s unacceptable,” he says.
asserted
he → ’ → ?
For Ramaswamy, the lesson is clear: when you execute someone, it must be swift and effective.
asserted
it → execute → someone
“I do intend to resume executions in Ohio,” he told a recent function at the Columbus Metropolitan Club.
asserted
he → intend → Club
“In the rare cases, for the most egregious crimes, where every element of the facts, the law, and even the backdrop and scale of consequence have been full established.”
asserted
element → establish → consequence
Ramaswamy said he was open to methods other than lethal injection.
asserted
he → say → injection
“It’s my responsibility to ensure that as we resume executions in Ohio, that we do so in a manner that is fully backed by every bit of scientific data, as well as every ethical backstop for doing this in the correct way in a constitutionally sanctioned way.
asserted
that → ’ → way
The last person executed in Ohio was Robert Van Hook, who received a lethal injection in 2018 for the murder of David Self in 1985.
asserted
who → execute → 1985
Van Hook unsuccessfully argued the so-called gay panic defence: that he was the subject of an unwanted homosexual advance.
asserted
he → argue → advance
The failed attempt to execute Pike in Tennessee, and the Pentagon’s aborted plan to live-stream the firing squad execution of mass murderer Nidal Hasan, has brought the death penalty into the spotlight.
asserted
attempt → fail → spotlight
Ramaswamy is not alone in seeking to bring it back or expand its use.
asserted
Ramaswamy → seek → use
Several US states have passed laws in the past few years that authorise the death penalty as a punishment for people who sexually abuse children: Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
asserted
who → pass → children
The laws are designed to challenge a Supreme Court ruling from 2008 – Kennedy v Louisiana – which ruled the death penalty was not constitutionally permissible in child sexual abuse cases because it was reserved for the worst possible crimes: intentional homicide.
asserted
it → design → crimes
So far, no death sentences have been imposed under these laws.
asserted
sentences → impose → laws
“When that happens, we’ll see that case percolate up through the courts and possibly to the United States Supreme Court,” says Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre.
uncertain
Maher → happen → Centre
President Donald Trump also wants to expand the death penalty.
asserted
Trump → want → penalty
At a rally in Mississippi on Monday night, he pledged to pass federal laws authorising the punishment for large-scale drug dealers, human traffickers and “anyone who kills a police officer or a member of law enforcement”.
asserted
who → pledge → enforcement
The number of executions has been climbing: from a modern low of 11 in 2021 to 47 last year.
asserted
number → climb → 47
There have been 32 executions to date in 2026, with eight more scheduled before Christmas.
asserted
eight → schedule → Christmas
Three are set for next Thursday, November 5.
asserted
Three → set → Thursday
One state accounts for an outsized proportion of those executions: Florida.
asserted
state → account → executions
The number of people put to death in the Sunshine State rose from zero at the start of the decade to a record 19 in 2025, and 18 so far this year.
asserted
number → put → 2025
“That’s all down to one person, and that’s governor Ron DeSantis,” says Maher.
asserted
Maher → ’ → person
While juries impose sentences, “he alone selects the people who will be executed, he signs their warrants, sets their execution dates and also decides their clemency petitions”.
asserted
he → impose → petitions
This is a feature of Florida law that predates DeSantis, a Republican.
asserted
that → predate → DeSantis
“It’s a really unprecedented concentration of power and authority in a single human being,” says Maher.
asserted
Maher → ’ → being
DeSantis’ second and final term as governor expires at the start of January.
asserted
term → expire → January
The state with the second-highest number of executions this year is Texas, where seven people have been put to death.
asserted
people → put → death
Only four other states have executed people in 2026; three in Oklahoma, two in Alabama and one in each of Arizona and Tennessee.
asserted
states → execute → Arizona
What is happening in Florida partially obscures a broader shift away from the death penalty in the US.
asserted
happening → happen → US
Most people being executed today were sentenced decades ago.
asserted
executed → execute → ?
The DPIC says 23 people were sentenced to death in 2025, compared to 317 in 1996.
asserted
people → say → 1996
And support for the death penalty has been falling since the 1990s.
asserted
support → fall → 1990s
A long-running Gallup poll finds a bare majority – 52 per cent – of Americans favour the death penalty for a person convicted of murder.
asserted
majority → run → murder
Support is higher among Republicans (75 per cent) than Democrats (29 per cent), and slightly higher among people who didn’t graduate from university, according to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted this month.
uncertain
who → graduate → poll
Maher points out that while many conservative politicians aligned with Trump have introduced bills to expand the death penalty, most of them fail to become law.
asserted
most → point → them
“It does appear from that failure rate that a lot of the proposals were performative in nature,” she says.
asserted
she → appear → nature
“We’ve had legislation introduced as a show of support or agreement for President Trump’s agenda.”
asserted
legislation → have → agenda
However, there is a move to expand the methods by which felons can be executed.
asserted
felons → be → which
In Idaho, firing squad is now the state’s primary execution method, following a law signed by Republican governor Brad Little last year.
asserted
squad → follow → Little
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
