Execution Delayed In Ohio Until 2021

COLUMBUS, OH — Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has ordered an upcoming execution delayed. Cleveland Jackson was scheduled to be killed November 13, but his execution has been moved to January 13, 2021.

A new complaint has been filed against Jackson's former attorneys, prompting the delay, DeWine said.

"The reprieve is entirely appropriate due to the failure of Mr. Jackson’s former habeas counsel which resulted in a problematic legal process in his case," said Jackson's attorney Dale Baich in an email to Patch. "Among other issues that were not explored due to Mr. Jackson’s poor legal representation was evidence of Mr. Jackson’s intellectual disability. This was not developed and presented at the appropriate time. This critical failure on the part of his former counsel has cost Mr. Jackson his right to raise this constitutional challenge, which would have made him ineligible for a death sentence. Now, the courts may no longer have the ability to review these and other meritorious claims."

The state's Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections is also struggling to acquire drugs that can legally be used in executions.

Ohio currently uses a three-drug lethal injection protocol. However, many drug manufacturers banned use of their products in executions. Those same manufacturers have threatened to cut off all sales of their products to Ohio government agencies. That is, in part, because some of the drugs used in Ohio executions have also been found to possibly create pain in prisoners.

DeWine has already ordered other executions delayed because of legal challenges to the state's execution method. The governor has postponed the execution of three other men: Warren Henness, Kareem Jackson, and Gregory Lott.

Jackson was found guilty of murdering two people in Lima, Ohio during a robbery in 2002, according to the Lima News. Jackson and his cousin went to an apartment intending to take money and drugs from a man. They found eight people inside. They lined up eight of them and shot them, the Lima News reported. Two of the shot persons died.