Court halts Ohio execution, cites injection flaws

[samanthajane13]

CINCINNATI – A federal appeals court on Monday halted the execution of an inmate three weeks after problems with a lethal injection attempt.

A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled 2-1 to grant the request of 43-year-old Lawrence Reynolds Jr., who had been sentenced to die for strangling his 67-year-old neighbor during a 1994 robbery.

On Sept. 15, Gov. Ted Strickland stopped the lethal injection of Romell Broom after state executioners struggled for two hours to find a usable vein.

Broom's execution is on hold while his attorneys prepare for a Nov. 30 federal court hearing. They argue that an unprecedented second execution attempt on Broom violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Judge Boyce Martin said Broom's case raises questions about Ohio's lethal injection procedures, including the competence of the state's execution team.

"Given the important constitutional and humanitarian issues at stake in all death penalty cases, these problems in the Ohio lethal injection protocol are certainly worthy of meaningful consideration," Martin wrote.

He said U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost should consider the cases of Broom and Reynolds together in November.

Judge Jeffrey Sutton dissented, arguing that the state's policy addresses a scenario where repeated attempts to find a vein are unusable.

"Why assume an execution protocol is unconstitutional when one of the humane features of the protocol — that the State will not continue trying to access a usable vein beyond a sensible time limit — is being followed?" Sutton wrote.

Gov. Ted Strickland's decision to stop Broom's execution appears to be unprecedented since capital punishment was declared constitutional and the nation resumed executions in the 1970s. Inmates in several states have experienced delays with the injection of lethal chemicals, but those executions always proceeded the same day.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091005/ap_on_re_us/us_death_penalty_ohio

[samanthajane13]

Courts examine Ohio's lethal-injection procedures
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writer Andrew Welsh-huggins, Associated Press Writer – Tue Oct 6, 3:48 am ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The national impact of the unprecedented halting of a rapist's execution after two hours and temporary reprieves for other condemned inmates likely will become clear over the next few months as courts examine the state's lethal-injection procedures, experts say.

Gov. Ted Strickland ordered the five-month reprieves to give the prisons department more time to update protocols for dealing with long delays in finding suitable veins on inmates for injecting lethal chemicals. The order represents only a brief moratorium, since inmates still are scheduled to die in December, January and February.

Strickland's reprieves for Lawrence Reynolds, scheduled to be executed Thursday for killing a neighbor, and Darryl Durr, scheduled to die next month for strangling a girl, ended a series of rapid-fire events Monday focused on the state's lethal-injection process.

Earlier in the day, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had delayed Reynolds' execution, citing problems with another one, the unsuccessful attempt on Sept. 15 to put Romell Broom to death for raping and killing a teenage girl he had abducted at knifepoint in Cleveland in 1984.

Strickland stopped that execution after two hours when executioners couldn't find a usable vein.

Until it was halted, the execution attempt had taken the longest in Ohio to date, and Strickland's order to stop it was unprecedented nationally since the country resumed executions in the 1970s.

Ohio has put 32 people to death since 1999, when executions resumed there.

The U.S. Supreme Court was weighing whether to uphold the delay for Reynolds when Strickland issued his reprieves.

Strickland said prison staff since Sept. 15 have been researching backup or alternative procedures for lethal injection that would comply with state law.

"Although they have made substantial progress in this regard, more research and evaluation of backup or alternative procedures is necessary before one or more can be selected," Strickland said.

The backup procedure also will require training and other preparation, Strickland said.

Texas executed two people immediately after Broom's execution was stopped. Virginia is preparing to put Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad to death next month.

Muhammad's attorney Jon Sheldon said he had no plans to raise an injection issue as part of an upcoming appeal. He said it's difficult to challenge the constitutionality of injection in Virginia because the state keeps many details of its process secret.

Virginia, unlike Ohio, doesn't permit witnesses to view the insertion of the IVs. It also shields its protocols, considering them related to security, said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Texas also doesn't permit anyone to witness the placement of the IVs.

Broom's case is likely to affect inmates whose cases most closely resemble his, such as condemned killers who argue they also have veins that might be difficult to find, said David Dow, litigation director for the Texas Defender Service.

Broom's execution is on hold while his attorneys prepare for a Nov. 30 federal court hearing. The attorneys argue that a second execution attempt on Broom would violate a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The impact of Broom's case nationally will probably become clearer once U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost holds that hearing, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor and lethal-injection expert.

The reprieves Strickland issued provide some insight into his position on how the state executes people, since he could have gone even further, said Lori Shaw, a University of Dayton death penalty expert.

"What he hasn't done is put a moratorium on executions," she said. "He took this step, but he didn't take a greater leap."

Judge Boyce Martin said Broom's case raises questions about the state's lethal-injection procedures, including the competence of the state's execution team.

"Given the important constitutional and humanitarian issues at stake in all death penalty cases, these problems in the Ohio lethal-injection protocol are certainly worthy of meaningful consideration," the judge wrote.

He said Frost should consider the cases of Broom and Reynolds together in November.

Judge Jeffrey Sutton dissented, arguing that the state's policy addresses a scenario in which executioners can't find suitable veins after repeated attempts.

"Why assume an execution protocol is unconstitutional when one of the humane features of the protocol — that the state will not continue trying to access a usable vein beyond a sensible time limit — is being followed?" he wrote.

Strickland delayed Reynolds' execution until March 9 and Durr's until April 20.

Prosecutors say Reynolds strangled Loretta Foster, who lived three doors down from him in Cuyahoga Falls, near Akron, when he needed money to fuel his alcohol addiction.

"We are disappointed for Loretta Foster's family, who has waited a very long time to see Reynolds' sentence carried out, and ultimately, to see final justice for her murder," said Brad Gessner, criminal division chief at the Summit County prosecutor's office.

Durr, of Elyria, in Lorain County, was scheduled to die Nov. 10 for raping and strangling a 16-year-old girl, Angel O'Nan, in 1988.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091006/ap_on_re_us/us_death_penalty_ohio

[One2Snoop]

Grrrrrrrrr :flamemad: Send them to the Gas chamber.

[samanthajane13]

Call me barbaric, but at least with the firing squad they actually FEEL something...if only for a second or two...and that GOOD in my book.

[deacon]

Grrrrrrrrr :flamemad: Send them to the Gas chamber.

Ya don't have to look for a vein with "ole sparky."

[BeastofBears]

I watch the news. There are LOTS of ways to kill people.

Hey, I know! This guy didn't need to find a "suitable vein" for his neighbor...do what he did to her! solved.

[samanthajane13]

Ohio executions back on with 1-drug method
By JULIE CARR SMYTH, AP Statehouse Correspondent Julie Carr Smyth, Ap Statehouse Correspondent – Sat Nov 14, 6:19 am ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio's death chamber is set to resume executions next month using a single drug that has been used in the U.S. to euthanize pets but never to put condemned prisoners to death.

Barring legal challenges, condemned inmate Kenneth Biros is scheduled Dec. 8 to be the first prisoner in the nation to be executed using a single dose of the drug thiopental sodium instead of the combination of three drugs that the state had been using.

A federal judge had temporarily halted Biros' execution because of the botched execution of Romell Broom in September, which prompted the new execution method announced Friday. Executioners couldn't find a suitable vein on Broom to administer the lethal drugs, and he walked away from the execution chamber after the governor issued a temporary stay.

Broom is sentenced to die for raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in 1984.

In announcing plans to switch to a one-drug method by Nov. 30, Ohio waded into uncharted waters. Death penalty opponents praised the new rules as a step forward — albeit one that has never been tried on prisoners. However, the decision is almost certain to be appealed and draw the close attention of other states that have long used the three-drug method.

"I chose to do it because I'm getting sued either way," Terry Collins, Ohio prisons director, said Friday.

Under the three-drug method, the first drug knocks out an inmate, the second paralyzes him and the third stops his heart — a process that death penalty opponents argue is excruciatingly painful if the first drug doesn't work.

The single-drug technique amounts to an overdose of anesthesia, Collins said.

Death penalty opponents hailed Collins' decision as making executions more humane but expressed reservations about using an untested method. The same drug is commonly used to euthanize pets, sedate surgery patients and in some parts of Europe has been used in assisted suicides.

"This is a significant step forward," said Ty Alper, associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, law school. "Paralyzing inmates before executing them — so we can't tell whether they are suffering — is a barbaric practice, and Ohio should be commended for stopping it."

Richard Dieter, director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, called the new practice an experiment on inmates.

"They're human subjects and they're not willingly part of this," Dieter said. "This is experimenting with the unknown, and that always raises concerns."

Ohio's decision, filed in papers Friday in U.S. District Court, said it would switch from the three-drug method to a single injection of thiopental sodium into a vein. A separate two-drug muscle injection will be available as a backup.

Collins said the backup method, had it been in place, would have given Broom's executioners an alternative. He repeatedly commended the execution team as professional and competent, but noted that there was nothing for them to do when Broom's vein was incapable of sustaining the flow of the IV drugs.

Gov. Ted Strickland stopped Broom's execution after two hours when executioners failed to find a suitable vein. Broom later complained in an affidavit that his executioners painfully hit muscle and bone during as many as 18 attempts to reach a vein.

Temporary moratoriums on executions also are in place in California and Maryland, where courts are reviewing proposed changes to injection procedures, though none involving a switch to a single drug.

Other states are unlikely to make a similar switch soon, said Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor and death penalty expert.

Several states besides Ohio also have faced constitutional challenges to their three-drug execution procedures, but Ohio is the first to drop that approach in favor of a single-drug method.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection last year, but Ohio's new system is substantially different than the three-drug process the court examined. In its ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts briefly addressed the prospect of using a single sedative in a dose large enough to cause death.

The one-drug method, Roberts said, "has problems of its own, and has never been tried by a single state."

That means Ohio could be opening itself to new litigation, said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York and lethal injection expert.

"The inmates who are going to be executed could challenge the constitutionality of what's being raised in Ohio," Denno said Friday.

Ohio has put 32 people to death since 1999, when executions resumed in the state.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins contributed to this report.

___

On The Net:

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction: http://www.drc.ohio.gov


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091114/ap_on_re_us/us_death_penalty_ohio;_ylt=AuoV6DlSy9gOqaD23FGejoN H2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTJvNTJndGVtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTE 0L3VzX2RlYXRoX3BlbmFsdHlfb2hpbwRjcG9zAzcEcG9zAzcEc 2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNvaGlvZXhlY3V0aW8-

[samanthajane13]

Doctor's help sought in failed Ohio execution try
By JoANNE VIVIANO, Associated Press Writer Joanne Viviano, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 27 mins ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio – As an Ohio execution team tried to find a vein during an unsuccessful lethal injection attempt, prison staff sought help from a doctor — a move generally discouraged by ethical and professional medical rules — federal court papers show.

Dr. Carmelita Bautista said in a deposition filed in U.S. District Court that she had never before been involved in an execution.

"No, because I am a doctor," she tells a lawyer questioning her. "We are supposed to help people who are sick. We're supposed to heal people as such as we can."

Bautista said she tried to insert an IV catheter into Romell Broom's foot during the execution attempt on Sept. 15 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Gov. Ted Strickland postponed it after several hours because a useable vein could not be found.

The American Medical Association prohibits its members from participating in executions, including anything that would "contribute to the ability of another individual to directly cause the death of the condemned." Dr. Rebecca Patchin, its board chairman, has said that being involved in capital punishment in any manner undermines a doctor's role as a healer.

But some doctors feel it's ethically permissible to participate in executions because they are helping inmates avoid pain and ensuring a peaceful death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.

While Kentucky and Illinois rules say doctors shall not participate in executions, many states have "distant participation" by medical doctors to determine that death has occurred, Dieter said.

"A doctor is obviously close by. That's usually the limit of participation that may be ethically allowed," he said. "Even that's questionable. ... Now when something goes wrong, you can see where there might be intervention."

Reached at her home in West Virginia on Tuesday, Bautista said she is not part of Ohio's execution team and does not feel as though she assisted in the execution process.

"I was just called to help to see if I can find an IV site," said Bautista, who is not an American Medical Association member. "They just asked me if I can see an IV site, and I did not see any problem with that."

Bautista, who is on staff at Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston, W.Va., was deposed in October in a long-standing lawsuit in which several inmates challenge Ohio's three-drug death penalty protocol as unconstitutional.

In a separate U.S. District Court case, Broom's lawyers have argued that the state should not be permitted to try to execute him a second time. A federal judge is to hear arguments in the case on Monday.

Bautista occasionally works at the infirmary at the Lucasville prison and was there when asked by the prison's health care administrator to help with Broom. She said in the deposition that she spent less than five minutes in his holding cell.

She said she had never before been to the Ohio death house and that she was unaware until that day that the state's executions took place at the prison. She said she told the nurse who escorted her to the death house that she was frightened.

"I was scared of going to that place. I told her, 'I'm so scared,'" Bautista said in the deposition. "Because she told me that there was this guy who they were trying to see if they can get an IV to be executed. That's why I'm scared."

Dieter said it seems Bautista had to make an "on-the-spot" decision on whether or not to assist.

"Obviously, they hadn't thought through this whole process, pulling in a doctor who didn't have much time to think about it," he said. "I think what this speaks to is, whatever is going to be done next, that it be fully explored."

A message seeking comment was left Tuesday afternoon for a prisons spokeswoman.

Ohio has put 32 people to death since 1999, when executions resumed in the state. It recently announced that it was revising its execution protocol to do away with the three-drug vein injection in favor of one drug IV, with a two-drug muscle injection as a backup.

Ohio said in a court filing in the lethal injection case last month it was having a hard time finding medical personnel willing to consult about alternatives to its lethal injection protocol because professional and ethical rules were deterring doctors from speaking publicly or privately.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091125/ap_on_re_us/us_death_penalty_ohio

[Amy]

Death penalty opponents hailed Collins' decision as making executions more humane but expressed reservations about using an untested method. The same drug is commonly used to euthanize pets, sedate surgery patients and in some parts of Europe has been used in assisted suicides.

Well, dang. An untested method. Who the heck are they going to "test" it on, for pete's sake?

The people who worry about the present method being inhumane (not addressing the failure to find a vein) obviously haven't undergone procedures where conscious sedation is used. I have. Trust me, you don't remember a thing for hours on end. And even then, things continue to be rather fuzzy for a while. IMO, even if the murderer actually lives thru the execution attempt, any painful part of dying won't be remembered.

I do agree w/any of the solutions suggested by posters. Especially BoB's suggestion of the murderer to die the same way his victim did. Works for me. I get kind of tired of hearing about the poor murderers' possibly experiencing even a tad bit of pain or discomfort when they die. They didn't worry about humane anything when they killed their victims. Some probably even took great pleasure in prolonged torture.....they deserve no consideration, IMO.

[samanthajane13]

How about squads of blind snipers???

Set them up so they won't shoot each other, point them on the general direction of the executee, and let 'em rip!!!

If if takes a couple of extra clips, so what???

I'm sure that none of the murderers and rapists took extra care to prevent inflicting pain on their victims.