That's the question Doug Berman asks at Sentencing Law & Policy. Given statements by elected officials in Wisconsin (here), a return of capital punishment in that state appears to be nil, but Doug's comments about Ohio might have more resonance. LINK
The story in Ohio is less visible, but no less interesting. Over the last three years, Ohio has been second only to Texas in the number of executions. This has partly resulted from Republican state officials pushing hard on post-conviction litigation against the backdrop of a large death row population. But now, for the first time since Ohio resumed executions in 1999, a Democrat will be Ohio's governor and Ohio's attorney general. Though I doubt Ohio's new democratic executive branch will seek to undue the death penalty in Ohio, the pace of execution could be greatly influenced by the change in personnel. Also, there might be new opportunities for death penalty abolitionists in Ohio to join forces with some pro-life Republicans in the state legislature who have previously expressed concerns about state killing (details here).
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