‘Nitrogen gas or firing squad, I’m for it:’ Trumbull prosecutor in favor of death penalty
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins testified Tuesday before the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee in support of legislation to permit the use of nitrogen hypoxia for carrying out Ohio’s death penalty.
Joining Watkins in voicing support for the bill proposed by state Reps Brian Stewart and Phill Plummer, were Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Louis Tobin, Executive Director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorney
Association. Watkins said the legislation is needed to “kickstart the state’s stalled capital punishment system.” He said he wants to see justice for victims of such heinous murders committed by death row inmates like Trumbull County’s Stanley Adams and Danny Lee Hill.
The mother of Hill’s victim Raymond Fife has waited almost 39 years “twisting in the wind” waiting to see justice done in the case, which has faced a barrage of appeals that seem never-ending.
“I have been actively pursing the death penalty in appropriate cases for over 40 years,” Watkins said in his address that took about seven minutes in the William McKinley Hearing Room of the ornate state capitol in Columbus. When Watkins was finished speaking, not one of the committee members present asked a question.
Trumbull prosecutor wants more constitutional death penalty choices
In his remarks, Watkins emphasized the State should do whatever is necessary to carry out death sentences that have been imposed by judges and juries across Ohio.
“If it includes nitrogen gas, I’m for it,” he said, “If it includes the firing squad, I’m for it.” Watkins emphasized that he wanted capital defendants to have more choices, as long as they are constitutional.
Watkins also referenced a 2009 Trumbull County case in which death row inmate Kenneth Biros was executed using a single drug after a previous Ohio execution attempt with the standard three-drug cocktail failed earlier that year. Watkins praised then-Gov. Ted Strickland for carrying out the “last dying wish” of the victim’s mother.
Some on the committee questioned the uncertainty of going forward with the nitrogen gas execution method because it is new. Watkins pointed out that it was the leadership of the governor’s office under Strickland and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2009 (taking about seven months) that brought about the first single-drug protocol execution in the nation’s history.
“Don’t worry about others. Do the right thing,” he said.