Local prosecutor addresses committee on death penalty

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WKBN) – Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins took his fight to carry out Ohio’s death penalty to Columbus.

Watkins testified Tuesday in front of the Ohio House Oversight Committee explaining why he is backing House Bill 392 which would allow nitrogen hypoxia for executions.

Ohio has a moratorium on carrying out death penalties because the Department of Corrections cannot obtain the drugs from pharmaceutical companies to carry them out. Any other method of execution has to go through the legislative process. House Bill 392 is currently in committee and would allow the use of nitrogen hypoxia, which has already been approved in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama.

“The death penalty needs to be maintained for the worst of the worst,” Watkins told the committee. “Just yesterday, Mirian Fife, whose son was tortured, raped and murdered, has been waiting 38 years for finality. I support this bill as another alternative that this legislative body should look at and support the enforcement of the law of Ohio like other states are currently doing. If you have a death penalty, victims of crimes — Marsy’s Law — clearly states as citizens these victims are entitled to have a trial with a prompt conclusion — not 38 years.”

Joining Watkins in voicing support for the bill, proposed by state Representatives Brian Stewart and Phil Plummer, were Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Louis Tobin, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorney Association.

Watkins told legislators about Tami Engstrom, of Brookfield, and how her killer, Kenneth Biros, was executed in 2009 using a one-drug method — a single dose of sodium thiopental. He pointed out that the method was new and that legislators then “had the willpower” to adopt it.

Ohio would later begin using a new pharmaceutical cocktail for lethal injection, but Governor Mike DeWine issued a moratorium in 2020 “due to ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction,” DeWine said.

“Because of the appellate process in state and federal court, I believe, from my experience, that we have a fair system in Ohio, and it has worked. It has worked three times in Trumbull County. If we have the willpower — if it includes nitrogen gas, I am all for it. If it includes the firing squad, I am all for it,” Watkins said.

Watkins said that Ohio law included the death penalty and it’s up to legislators to make sure the law is being carried out.

“I believe in due process and being fair to the parties, including the defendant,” he said. “If we have a fair trial and the law is the law, we enforce it. No matter who wins or loses — if it’s a fair trial with due process. And that’s what I attempt to do as a prosecutor, and that’s why I am here today to try and get some finality and prompt conclusion for the victims that survive the most heinous crimes.”

Watkins has been a prosecutor for over 40 years in Trumbull County and has tried over 20 death penalty cases.

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