Speaker: Ohio House GOP discussing repeal of death penalty

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – House Republicans in Ohio are discussing doing away with the death penalty, as executions remain on hold amid the state’s struggles to obtain lethal injection drugs.

GOP House Speaker Larry Householder told reporters Thursday that his majority caucus’s conversations on the issue have included whether to do away with capital punishment.

Current law in Ohio only allows for lethal injection as an execution method. Householder said shooting, hanging and electrocution don’t seem like viable alternatives and a death penalty that can’t be carried out is expensive.

A spokesman for the Ohio Senate majority caucus says the Senate hasn’t discussed abolishing the death penalty.