The state of Ohio executed Gary Otte this morning, marking the second execution following a three-year hiatus that ended on July 26 with the execution of Ronald R. Phillips.
Ohio halted executions when a 2014 lethal injection left prisoner Dennis McGuire choking and gasping for breath before he died.
“While other states move away from the cruel and irrevocably broken capital punishment system, Ohio is shamefully backsliding by resuming executions,” said Kristina Roth, senior program officer at Amnesty International USA. “While it is too late for Gary Otte and Ronald Phillips, Governor Kasich can stop this regression by commuting all the sentences of those remaining on death row.”