COLUMBUS, OH – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday, June 20, 2025, at 5:43 p.m. EDT, citing ongoing challenges with pharmaceutical suppliers providing execution drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) without risking public safety. The reprieves adjust the following execution dates: Timothy Coleman’s, originally set for October 30, 2025, is now September 13, 2028; Kareem Jackson’s, previously December 10, 2025, moves to October 11, 2028; and Quisi Bryan’s, slated for January 7, 2026, is rescheduled to November 15, 2028.
Coleman, 52, was convicted in 1996 for the fatal shooting of Melinda Stevens, a Springfield police informant. Prosecutors claim he confessed to fellow inmates, though his attorneys argue he was unfairly targeted as a Black man during the 1990s war on drugs, pointing to a white man’s uninvestigated confession to the crime.
Jackson was sentenced to death for the 1997 execution-style murders of Terrance L. Walker and Antorio Hunter during a $45 and marijuana robbery near Westerville Road and Oakland Park Avenue in Clinton Township.
Bryan’s death sentence stems from the 2000 murder of Cleveland Police Officer Wayne Leon, whom he shot in the face at a gas station after being stopped for an altered tag. Bryan also fired at private security agent Kenneth Niedhammer during a chase, crashing his car before his arrest in Columbus that day. While incarcerated, Bryan pleaded guilty to four sexual assault cases (48 years) and was convicted in a fifth (20-50 years).
All three inmates are held at Ross County Correctional Institution as the state addresses the drug supply issue.
