COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gov. John Kasich on Friday delayed eight executions as a court fight continues over the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection process.
Kasich’s announcement postponed the execution of a condemned child killer scheduled for next week until May and moved seven other procedures months into the future.
The Republican governor said the timing of arguments before a Cincinnati federal appeals court necessitated the delay. The court is hearing Ohio’s appeal of a federal judge’s order finding the state’s latest execution process unconstitutional.
Kasich said he’s confident Ohio will win the appeal but that the court calendar didn’t provide enough time to prepare for executions scheduled this month, next month and April.
“These delays are necessary to allow the judicial process to come to a full resolution, and ensure that the state can move forward with the executions after the appeal is settled,” Kasich said.
The delay also leaves open the possibility that, should the appeal reach the U.S. Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the court’s vacant ninth seat, will be confirmed and able to hear the case.
The delay was another setback for death penalty supporters who hoped that new supplies of drugs obtained by Ohio last year would allow executions to move forward after a three-years-plus delay.
The state has said it has enough drugs for four executions, but records obtained by The Associated Press indicate Ohio could have enough on hand to put dozens of killers to death.
Ronald Phillips, scheduled to die Feb. 15 for raping and killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in Akron in 1993, is now set for execution May 10.
Also Friday, the Ohio Parole Board rejected a clemency request by Gary Otte, who shot two people to death in back-to-back robberies over two days in suburban Cleveland in 1992. The board cited the “heinous” nature of the killings. Kasich on Friday moved Otte’s execution date from March 15 to June 13.
At issue is a federal judge’s ruling last month rejecting the state’s latest proposed three-drug execution method, which hasn’t been used in Ohio.
As part of that decision, Magistrate Judge Michael Merz said Ohio didn’t prove that the first drug in its current three-drug process, the sedative midazolam, doesn’t present a substantial risk of harm.
Merz also said the possibility exists that Ohio could obtain the barbiturate pentobarbital.
Ohio says it has made numerous unsuccessful efforts to find pentobarbital. In a court filing last week, state attorneys said they asked seven other states for the drug.
The prisons agency also tried in vain to obtain the active ingredient in pentobarbital in hopes of having a compounded version made, the filing said.
The filing says Ohio asked Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Texas and Virginia for the drug.
“None of those states agreed to provide pentobarbital to Ohio,” according to the filing, which summarized a sealed deposition by Stephen Gray, the prison agency’s in-house lawyer.
The filing doesn’t say when Ohio made those requests. Of the seven states, only Georgia, Missouri and Texas appear to have reliable sources of pentobarbital when needed. Those states won’t reveal the source.
Executions have been on hold since January 2014 when Ohio used a never-tried two-drug combo that it then abandoned.
The prison system says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year permitted midazolam’s use.
“Ohio has the capability to perform constitutional executions now. It should be permitted to do so,” Thomas Madden, an assistant attorney general, said in Ohio’s appeal.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has scheduled arguments for Feb. 21.
The prisons system changed its execution process because it can’t find pentobarbital, said Gary Mohr, the agency’s director, who said the agency is “comfortable” with its position before the appeals court.
“This is a serious responsibility, and we work hard to carry out executions in a humane manner, with the utmost respect for the law, for victims, and for justice,” Mohr said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “That commitment is unwavering.”
The state also said in its filing:
— Ohio can’t import pentobarbital or its active ingredient from a foreign manufacturer because the state’s application to add pentobarbital to its current federal importer registration hasn’t been acted on in four months.
— Even if Ohio had a license to import the drug, it hasn’t identified any company that would provide it.
FILE – In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Magistrate Judge Michael Merz in Dayton, Ohio, declared Ohio’s new three-drug lethal injection process unconstitutional on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017, and delayed three executions, including the execution of Ronald Phillips that had been scheduled Feb. 15, 2017.
http://limaohio.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_kill.jpg
FILE – In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Magistrate Judge Michael Merz in Dayton, Ohio, declared Ohio’s new three-drug lethal injection process unconstitutional on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017, and delayed three executions, including the execution of Ronald Phillips that had been scheduled Feb. 15, 2017.
AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press
8 condemned Ohio killers receive new execution dates
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A look at the 8 condemned Ohio killers who received new execution dates Friday based on an order by Gov. John Kasich. The governor says the state is confident it will win the latest challenge to the state’s lethal injection method but the schedule for court arguments doesn’t leave enough time to prepare for executions this month, next month and April:
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Ronald Phillips, sentenced to die for raping and killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter, Sheila Marie Evans, in Akron in 1993.
Previous execution date: Feb. 15.
New date: May 10.
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Gary Otte, sentenced to die for the Feb. 12, 1992, killing of Robert Wasikowski and the Feb. 13, 1992, killing of Sharon Kostura. Both slayings took place in an apartment building in Parma, in suburban Cleveland.
Previous execution date: March 15.
New date: June 13.
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Raymond Tibbetts, sentenced to die for stabbing Fred Hicks to death at Hicks’ Cincinnati home in 1997. Tibbetts also received life imprisonment for fatally beating and stabbing his wife, 42-year-old Judith Crawford, during an argument over Tibbetts’ crack cocaine habit.
Previous execution date: April 12.
New execution date: July 26.
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Alva Campbell Jr., sentenced to die for killing Charles Dials in 1997 in Columbus. Campbell shot Dials after taking him hostage following Campbell’s assault of a court officer during a hearing.
Previous execution date: May 10.
New execution date: Sept. 13.
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William Montgomery, convicted of fatally shooting 20-year-old Debra Ogle and her 19-year-old roommate, Cynthia Tincher, in Toledo in 1986. Montgomery was convicted of murder for Tincher’s killing and sentenced to 15 years to life. He was convicted of aggravated murder in Ogle’s killing and received the death sentence.
Previous execution date: June 13.
New execution date: Oct. 18.
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Robert Van Hook, sentenced to die for fatally strangling and stabbing David Self, a man he met in a bar in Cincinnati in 1985.
Previous execution date: July 26.
New execution date: Nov. 15.
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Jeffrey Wogenstahl, sentenced to die for kidnapping 10-year-old Amber Garrett from her western Cincinnati suburban home in 1991, taking her to a secluded area and stabbing her to death. Wogenstahl had already received an execution delay from the Ohio Supreme Court.
Previous execution date: Sept. 13.
New execution date: April 17, 2019.
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Melvin Bonnell, sentenced to die for killing Robert Bunner in Cleveland in 1987.
Previous execution date: Oct. 18.
New execution date: April 11, 2018.
Source: AP Research