Execution dates delayed for two Valley death row inmates

John Drummond (L) Stanley Adams (R)

Execution dates have been set for two death row inmates in the Mahoning Valley.

According to a press release, the execution date for Stanley Adams (pictured above right) has been set for February 16, 2028. Additionally, the execution date for John Drummond (pictured above left) was set for March 15, 2028.

Both Adams and Drummond were originally set to be executed in 2025, but this had to be delayed due to ongoing issues involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections without endangering other Ohioans.

Adams has been on death row since 2001. He was convicted in the 1999 double aggravated murder of of Esther Cook of Warren and her 12-year-old daughter Ashley Dawn Cook.

Investigators say Adams beat and stabbed Esther and raped, beat and strangled her daughter.

Adams was also convicted of the 1999 beating, raping and strangling of Roslyn Taylor of Hubbard.

Meanwhile, Drummond has been on death row since 2004 when he was convicted in the 2003 drive-by murder of three-month-old Jiyen Dent on Youngstown's east side.

Drummond used an assault rifle to fire 11 shots into the Dent family home on Rutledge Drive. 

Dent's father said he was watching a movie while his son was in a baby swing in the living room when "bullets started coming through the windows and walls."

Dent was ultimately shot in the head.