Ohio Halts Executions Until 2017:  Executions in Ohio are to be delayed until at least 2017 to give prison agencies extra time to secure supplies of hard-to-obtain lethal injection drugs.  Andrew Welsh-Huggins of the AP reports that warrants of reprieve were issued by Gov. John Kasich, allowing executions dates for 11 inmates scheduled to die next year and one scheduled for early 2017 to be pushed back through August 2019.  Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien expressed his disappointment in the push-back, stating that "these delays come in cases where inmates have long exhausted their appeals and there's no question of their guilt."  Strict supply and distribution restrictions implemented in recent years have made it extremely difficult for death penalty states to secure the proper lethal injection drugs.  Both Oklahoma and Arkansas also halted executions in recent weeks amid investigation and legal challenges.  Update:  A follow-up AP story is here.

Anti-Sanctuary City Bill Faces Key Senate Vote:  The White House threatened to veto a Republican-backed bill that would make it illegal for local governments in so-called sanctuary cities to ignore federal immigration detainers, and would withhold federal funding from cities that fail to cooperate.  Fox News reports that the veto threat of the Stop Sanctuary Cities Act comes ahead of a Senate test vote Tuesday afternoon.  The legislation needs 60 votes in order to advance, meaning that at least a half-dozen Democrat senators must vote in its favor.  In a written statement, the White House claims that the bill fails to offer comprehensive reforms to fix the U.S.'s broken immigration laws, but GOP backers argue that the new legislation is a first critical step toward combating the dangerous practice of ignoring federal immigration law.  The bill comes three months after 32-year-old Kate Steinle was shot and killed in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant with a felony record and five deportations.  San Francisco is just one of hundreds of sanctuary cites in the country.

Update:  The bill was blocked by Senate democrats on a 54-45 vote.

Heather MacDonald Argues Against Sentencing Bill:  Powerline blog has this post by John Hinderaker discussing Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather MacDonald's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing S2123, a proposal to reduce federal sentences, which would result in the release of a large number of federal felons.  In her testimony Monday, MacDonald notes that the national narrative claiming that the U.S. prison system is irrationally draconian and racially biased is false and reinforced by a misconceived war on drugs.  She argues that racism, the war on drugs and police officers are responsible for neither mass incarceration nor any disproportionality of blacks in prison; violent crime is.  In her closing statement, she implores the committee to do the public a great service by rebutting the myth that the criminal justice system is racist.  The video recording of her testimony is available in the link provided.  The full hearing is on C-SPAN.