COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The state's latest scheduled execution was put on hold after an inmate asked to donate his organs with his death. Now two lawmakers from Northeast Ohio say the practice should be ended altogether.

Democratic Reps. Nickie J. Antonio of Lakewood and Dan Ramos made their pitch Tuesday in a statehouse news conference.

Appearing with them were representatives from Ohioans to Stop Executions, the Catholic Conference of Ohio, the Temple Israel of Columbus and the St. John's Episcopal Church of Columbus.

“It is time for Ohio to abolish this archaic punishment,” Antonio said. “The many flaws surrounding the death penalty show the punishment to be expensive, impractical, unjust, inhumane and erroneous. It is time to evolve to a more just society and replace the death penalty to life without parole in Ohio.”

Antonio and Ramos cited many reasons for ending the death penalty in Ohio, including new developments in DNA evidence testing; racial disparities in sentencing; disparities in the local affordability of capitol indictments; and a shortage accessing lethal execution drugs due to the refusal by manufacturers to have their drug, originally created to save lives, be used as a lethal injection.

“This isn’t how our criminal justice system should work. Seeking the death penalty comes at a greater cost to taxpayers and a painful, lengthy trial process for families seeking closure,” Ramos said. “Studies continue to show that the death penalty is applied unequally and arbitrarily. The geographic area or socioeconomic background you come from should not determine whether you are sentenced to death or life in prison.”

Their proposal faces an uphill climb.

Antonio and Ramos are two of 39 Democrats in the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives. Getting the law changed would require support of Republicans there, as well as in the Republican-dominated Ohio Senate.

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Ohio’s death penalty has garnered attention in recent months as the state has had to address a shortage of the drug pentobarbital. Supplies around the country dwindled after its European manufacturer said the drug is not intended for executions and blocked sales.

Ronald Phillips, who was convicted in Summit County in 1993 of raping and killing a 3-year-old girl, was scheduled for execution Nov. 14. He would have been the first person put to death in Ohio using a new and untried lethal-injection cocktail consisting of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a morphine derivative.

No state has put a prisoner to death using the combination of midazolam and hydromorphone, Associated Press has reported. Florida uses midazolam as the first of three drugs, while Kentucky includes the two in its untested backup method.

Gov. John Kasich stepped in to stop Phillips’ execution until next summer in order to allow the state to investigate whether the convicted killer’s organs can be donated to family members.

The governor's decision came one day before Phillips was to be put to death.

The next inmate scheduled for execution is Dennis McGuire, a Preble County man convicted of raping, choking and stabbing a pregnant woman in 1989. He is scheduled to die Jan. 16, 2014.