Kenneth Biros

[thinkinkmesa]

Watkins to high court: Set execution for Biros

Thu May 1, 2008 2:14 am (PDT)
Watkins to high court: Set execution for Biros

Published:Thursday, May 1, 2008

By Tim Yovich

Tami Engstrom’s sister said she believes Biros will be put to death
this time.

WARREN — Tom Heiss says it about time his sister’s murderer is put to
death.

“I’m happy it’s going forward. It’s time for our family to have a
little justice,” said Heiss, brother of Tami Engstrom, who was killed
and dismembered at the hands of Kenneth Biros in 1991.

His reactions came Wednesday after the Trumbull County prosecutor’s
office asked the Ohio Supreme Court to set an execution date for
Biros, of Brookfield.

“There shouldn’t be any more obstruction,” Prosecutor Dennis Watkins
said after LuWayne Annos, an assistant county prosecutor, filed a
motion with the state’s high court in Columbus seeking an execution
date.

Biros, 49, was scheduled to die March 20, 2007, but numerous appeals
have delayed the execution by lethal injection.

“It has destroyed me,” Heiss said of his sister’s death and following
court delays. “It hurts; it hurts a lot.”

Heiss, 40, lives on Youngstown’s West Side.

His 43-year-old sister, Debi Heiss of Hubbard, said she is happy with
Watkins’ seeking the date because she believes in the judicial system.

Although Watkins sought no specific date for the execution, he said
he hopes it will be set within three months.

As Biros was about to face lethal injection in 2007, Gov. Ted
Strickland, who had taken office in January 2007, delayed the
execution of Biros and two other death row inmates so he could review
their cases.

Besides the governor, the courts were also a factor in delaying the
execution.

Judge Gregory F. Frost of the Southern District of Ohio granted an
emergency preliminary stay to delay the execution indefinitely.

His ruling came in response to Biros’ joining a civil-rights lawsuit
that claimed lethal injection as a method of carrying out the death
penalty is cruel and unusual punishment.

The suit targeted the “three-drug thingytail” used by the state of
Kentucky.

On April 16, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the thingytail did not
violate the Eighth Amendment.

Ohio uses a drug thingytail similar to Kentucky’s.

In his motion, Watkins said it’s clear that Biros has exhausted all
of his state and federal court reviews. Since he has not appealed,
the motion says, the Ohio Supreme Court should issue a death warrant
setting an execution date.

Biros killed Engstrom near his King Graves Road home.

He agreed to take her from the Nickelodeon Lounge in Masury to help
her recover from illness or intoxication by getting her coffee.

Instead, Biros admitted that he had strangled her and placed parts of
her body in three locations after cutting off her head and part of
one leg. Biros had said he went into a rage.

“We really need this to be brought to justice after 17 years. This
time we know it’s going to be done,” Debi Heiss said.

“Tami needs to rest in peace,” she added.

Debi Heiss said Engstrom’s husband, Andy, died of a massive heart
attack three years ago.

Also, both of her parents are ill, and she wants them to live long
enough to know that Biros has been put to death.

yovich@vindy. com

www.vindy.com/news/2008/may/01/wa....tion-for-biros/

[thinkinkmesa]

Motion filed for Biros execution date

Fri May 2, 2008 6:19 am (PDT)
Published May 01, 2008 06:37 pm - Kenneth Biros could be the first
death row inmate executed in Ohio since a lawsuit before the U.S.
Supreme Court 14 months ago put a nationwide halt on the use of
lethal injections.

Motion filed for Biros execution date

Herald Staff and The Associated Press

BROOKFIELD —
Kenneth Biros could be the first death row inmate executed in Ohio
since a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court 14 months ago put a
nationwide halt on the use of lethal injections.

An assistant in Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins’ office
filed a motion Wednesday to set Biros’ execution date.

Biros, 49, formerly of Brookfield, has sat on death row since his
conviction in the 1991 murder of Tami Engstrom, of Hubbard.

Biros killed Ms. Engstrom on Feb. 8, 1991, after he picked her up in
a tavern on Brookfield Avenue in Masury.

Police believe the 22-year-old woman resisted Biros’ advances and he
killed her and dismembered her body. He then buried, dug up and
reburied parts of her body around the Masury area.

An execution scheduled in March 2007 was postponed by appeals,
including one that challenged the method used by Ohio and several
other states.

Opponents of a three-drug injection used in executions said the
method was unconstitutional because its effects were cruel and unusual.

The injection sedates, paralyzes and then kills the inmate. If the
initial anesthetic does not take hold, two other drugs can cause
excruciating pain. One of those drugs, a paralytic, would render the
prisoner unable to express his discomfort.

Some executions in Ohio took much longer than usual, with strong
indications that the prisoners suffered severe pain in the process.
Workers had trouble inserting the IV lines that are used to deliver
the drugs.

The Supreme Court ruled April 16 that the method, which is used in
about three dozen states, didn’t violate the Eighth Amendment.

Watkins’ office filed the motion for an execution date with the Ohio
Supreme Court, but didn’t specify a particular day.

Biros also has a separate appeal before the 6th Circuit that claims
he was not convicted of an offense that merits the death penalty.

He is being held in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

www.sharonherald.com/local/local_ story_122183706. html

[thinkinkmesa]

Execution Date Debate
Sept 10, 2008
Convicted Trumbull County killer Kenneth Biros is fighting for his
own life.

The county prosecutor has been trying to convince the Ohio Supreme
court to set an execution date for the man who murdered and
dismembered Tammy Engstrom of Hubbard in 1991.

But in papers filed with the state's high court, Biros attorney says
it would be wrong to set an execution date while he has cases pending
in the federal courts.
www.wfmj.com/Global/story.asp?S=8986562

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio prosecutor wants execution date for killer
Associated Press - April 24, 2009 11:45 AM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A prosecutor has asked the Ohio Supreme Court
to set an execution date for a condemned killer who mutilated his
victim and left her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins asked the court in a filing
Friday to set a new date for 50-year-old Kenneth Biros, who narrowly
escaped execution two years ago.

Watkins' request follows Tuesday's ruling by a federal court judge
that Ohio's lethal injection process is flawed but has not been
proven unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost ruled against Biros in that
decision and lifted a delay Frost had ordered in Biros' 2007 execution.

Biros killed 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Warren in 1991 after he
offered to drive her home from a bar.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press

www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=10243038

[thinkinkmesa]

Convicted Killer Seeks Delay...Again

Last Update: 8:23 am
A Trumbull County man, on death row for the brutal rape, murder and
dismemberment of a Hubbard woman, is again asking for a delay in his
execution.

Kenneth Biros filed a motion on Monday, claiming he is still part of
a federal lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection system.
Biros also says he wasn't properly indicted under capital punishment
law and should not be put to death.

Biros raped and killed 22 year old Tammy Engstrom back in 1991, and
then scattered her body parts throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Just last month, a federal judge denied Biros' claim that lethal
injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

www.wytv.com/content/news/local/story/Convicted-KillerSeeks-Delay-Again/-n75ZTtGx0mGxnLBKQLSvg.cspx

[thinkinkmesa]

Judge Postpones Another Ohio Inmate's Execution

A fourth Ohio inmate has gotten a temporary stay of execution as state officials and defense lawyers continue to examine the state's lethal injection method.

A federal judge on Monday indefinitely delayed the scheduled Dec. 8 execution of 51-year-old Kenneth Biros, who was convicted of a 1991 murder and attempted rape. The judge also indefinitely delayed the second effort to execute Romell Broom, whose botched execution attempt last month prompted the review.

Gov. Ted Strickland this month postponed the executions of two other men who were scheduled to die before Biros, Lawrence R. Reynolds Jr. and Darryl Durr, until the spring.

The state is considering ways to adjust its death chamber procedure after technicians couldn't locate suitable veins on Broom through which to administer lethal drugs.
abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8867497#

[thinkinkmesa]

Judge postpones Biros’ execution

A federal judge on Monday granted a stay of execution to another Ohio inmate as state officials and defense lawyers continue to examine the state's lethal injection method following a botched attempt last month.

Kenneth Biros, 51, was scheduled to be executed on Dec. 8. He was convicted in 1991 of murder and attempted rape.

Judge Gregory Frost indefinitely delayed his execution. The judge also indefinitely delayed the second effort to execute Romell Broom, whose botched execution attempt prompted the review.

''This court cannot say whether Mr. Biros is entitled to an ongoing stay of execution based on facts arising from the Broom execution attempt until this court knows what those facts are,'' the judge wrote.

News of the delay angered family members of Biros' murder victim Tami Engstrom, 22 of Brookfield.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," Engstrom's brother Tom Heiss of Girard said via telephone Monday night.

The family had traveled to Lucasville to witness Biros' scheduled execution in 2007, to learn that Biros was getting more time to argue against the penalty.

"I watched my mom age almost daily. Every time it looks like we're finally going to get a little peace, something gets thrown up in our face again," Heiss said.

The ruling comes after the Sept. 15 botched execution of Broom, which was also delayed by a federal judge until a back-up or alternative method of lethal injection could be designed.

Gov. Ted Strickland this month postponed the executions of two other men who were scheduled to die before Biros, Lawrence R. Reynolds Jr. and Darryl Durr, until the spring. The state is considering ways to adjust its death chamber procedure after technicians couldn't locate suitable veins on Broom through which to administer lethal drugs.

A spokeswoman for the governor said a review of execution procedures continued. A spokeswoman for Richard Cordray, the attorney general, said the state was reviewing its legal options. The state had expected to have new procedures in place in time to execute Biros on Dec. 8.

Among the changes the state is considering is injecting lethal drugs into inmates' bone marrow or muscles as an alternative to - or a backup for - the traditional intravenous execution procedure. Broom complained in an affidavit following the execution attempt that execution staff painfully hit muscle and bone at times during up to 18 attempts to reach a vein.

Broom was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 14-year old girl in 1984.

Biros came close to being executed in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution should be stayed to allow Biros to present lethal injection arguments to a panel of federal judges. Since it has been two years, the state requires another clemency hearing to consider any new evidence.

That hearing was to be held Thursday.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who convicted Biros at trial and argued successfully against clemency in 2007, was to attend that hearing via a video feed from death row. Watkins would then attend a clemency hearing in Nov. 9 in Columbus to counter any new evidence.

Biros had joined nine other death row inmates in Ohio who were to have a re-hearing in federal court on lethal injection and whether it is cruel and unusual punishment. The hearing was set for Nov. 2 before Judge Frost.

www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/528686.html?nav=5021

[guest]

Prosecutor: Execution can still go forward

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins remains confident that death row inmate Kenneth Biros can be executed on time despite a court ruling Monday that again puts the continuing lethal injection protocol issue in front of a judge.

Watkins said he hadn't heard as of Tuesday of any cancellation of Thursday's videotape proceeding during which Biros and his attorneys can present new evidence from a setting on death row in preparation for a Nov. 9 clemency hearing in Columbus.

And Watkins is quick to point out that the last line in Monday's ruling from U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost reserves the right to reconsider or lift the stay on Biros' execution that was set for Dec. 8.

Lifting the stay, though, could mean that Ohio has to come up with a new protocol to execute convicted killers. And as far as Watkins is concerned, if it means injecting one drug instead of a mixture of three - so be it.

A Lorain court already suggested using only one lethal drug to execute death row inmates in a recent opnion, he said.

''Whether it's one drug or three, we have to end the appeals and litigation. It's torture on the victims. The state has to have a heart for the victims of crime,'' Watkins said Tuesday.

''It's just a ridiculous situation. It (current lethal injection) has worked 32 out of 33 times, but the protocol is questioned,'' he said.

''Cruel and unusual? Give me a break. Consider the pain that Ken Biros inflicted on his victim - pain beyond imagination,'' Watkins said. ''She was struck, cut, punched, stabbed and choked 91 separate times. She was eviscerated, dismembered and her body parts spread all over Pennsylvania.''

Biros was convicted in the 1991 slaying of Tami Engstrom, 22, of Brookfield, after he offered to drive her home from a bar Feb. 7, 1991.

Biros, 51, came close to being executed in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution should be stayed to allow Biros to present initital lethal injection arguments to a panel of federal judges. Since it has been two years, the state requires another clemency hearing to consider any new evidence.

Engstrom's family had traveled to Lucasville to witness Biros' scheduled execution at that point, only to learn that Biros was getting more time to argue against the penalty.

Frost's ruling comes after the Sept. 15 botched execution of Romell Broom, which was also delayed by a federal judge until a backup or alternative method of lethal injection could be designed.

Gov. Ted Strickland this month postponed the executions of two other men who were scheduled to die before Biros, Lawrence R. Reynolds Jr. and Darryl Durr, until the spring. The state is considering ways to adjust its death chamber procedure after technicians couldn't locate suitable veins on Broom through which to administer lethal drugs.

''The Constitution shouldn't protect (Biros) from some pain,'' Watkins said.

www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/528731.html?nav=5021

[guest]

Parole board hears killer Biros’ case on Monday

The state parole board next week will hear arguments on whether to commute the death sentence of a Trumbull County man convicted in a brutal 1991 murder.

Monday’s hearing on Kenneth Biros is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s central office in Columbus.

It’s the second time the panel has considered whether to allow Biros to live out his days behind bars or face execution. The last time, in early 2007, the parole board recommended against a commutation, and Gov. Ted Strickland denied the clemency request.

Biros was actually transported to the death house at the Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville at that time, but last-minute court actions delayed his execution.

He is scheduled to make the trip again next month, though a stay issued by a federal court will likely mean another delay.

Biros, 51, was convicted in the February 1991 murder of Tami Engstrom, a 22-year-old woman he offered to drive home from a Masury bar. The victim was murdered, mutilated and dismembered, with parts of her body scattered in western Pennsylvania, according to documents.

Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said Biros was interviewed by parole board members late last month.

Biros will be represented by attorneys John P. Parker and Timothy F. Sweeney. Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and eight representatives of the state attorney general’s office will represent the state.

Six family members and friends of Engstrom also plan to attend, including her sister, Debi Heiss, and mother-in-law, Pat Engstrom.
www.vindy.com/news/2009/nov/06/parole-board-hears-killer-biros8217-case-on/?newswatch

[thinkinkmesa]

Prosecutor to fight for death penalty

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is scheduled to be in Columbus today, set to argue against any clemency for local death row inmate Kenneth Biros, scheduled to be executed Dec. 8.

A recommendation either for or against clemency from the Ohio Parole Board that goes to Gov. Ted Strickland is expected within a day or two.

The Ohio attorney general last week filed a motion with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to lift a stay on Biros' execution. A federal judge issued the stay earlier until the state of Ohio develops a new protocol on its lethal injection procedure.

In October, Watkins attended a proceeding that allowed him to view Biros' latest claims in preparation for today's clemency hearing.

Biros was convicted in the 1991 slaying and dismemberment of Tami Engstrom, 22, of Brookfield, after he offered to drive her home from a bar Feb. 7, 1991.

It's the second time that Watkins has argued against sparing Biros' life.

Biros, 51, came close to being executed in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution should be stayed to allow Biros to present initial lethal injection arguments to a panel of federal judges. Since it has been two years, the state requires another clemency hearing to consider any new evidence.

Engstrom's family had traveled to Lucasville to witness Biros' scheduled execution at that point in 2007, only to learn that Biros was getting more time to argue against the penalty.

The stay that Attorney General Richard Cordray wants to eliminate came after the Sept. 15 botched execution of death row inmate Romell Broom, which also was delayed by a federal judge until a back-up or alternative method of lethal injection could be designed.

Strickland postponed until the spring the executions of two other men who were scheduled to die in the months before Biros.

www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/529516.html?nav=5021

[thinkinkmesa]

After Botched Execution, Ohio Back To 1-Drug Method

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.

To read more;
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120415558

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio alters death-penalty dosage; Biros execution could be expedited

The state will use a new one-drug protocol when executing prisoners, with a backup plan in place for those with problematic vein access.

The change, announced by Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Terry Collins on Friday, comes in response to the failed execution of Romell Broom in September.

Collins said he has directed prison staff to implement the changes by the end of the month, in time for the execution of Kenneth Biros in early December, should the court stay in that case be lifted by that time.

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and the sister of murder victim Tami Engstrom were both pleased with the new death-penalty protocol. Watkins said the protocol is what defense attorneys for death-row inmates have sought as a more humane method of execution.

It should render moot any further discussion of problems with the state’s execution method, Watkins said, and allow the execution of Kenneth Biros, 51, of Brookfield to proceed. Biros killed and mutilited Engstrom of Hubbard in 1991.

Federal legal challenges by Biros and others are “a moot issue since the new protocol is what the defense experts said should be done,” Watkins said. “There is no reason the federal courts should block [Biros’] execution.”

One thing that does have to happen first, however, is for Gov. Ted Strickland to deny clemency to Biros, following Biros’ most recent clemency hearing on Monday, Watkins noted.

Engstrom’s sister, Debi Heiss, said Friday that learning that the state has a new execution method gives the Heiss family hope that Biros will be dead soon.

“My family would like to wish Kenny Biros a happy Friday the 13th,” she said. “We have a good feeling the stay [of execution] will be lifted and [Biros’] existence will no longer be.”

But additional legal actions could tie up executions in Ohio for months to come.

Ohio Public Defender Tim Young voiced support for the move but said the new protocol does not answer concerns about vein access during executions. “Mr. Broom’s failed execution was not due to the drugs, but to the failure to properly place an IV,” he said. “The new process announced this afternoon works on one problem, but leaves the other untouched. ... Because the new protocol announced today has not corrected the cause of the botched executions Ohio has experienced, I do expect litigation to continue.”

There is no other state that uses a one-drug protocol, nor is there another state that uses an intramuscular protocol, Collins told reporters. “... [But] I’m confident that the use of the one-drug protocol will legally [meet] the obligation that we’re required to in this state.”

Ohio has executed 32 inmates since 1999. All were put to death using a three-drug combination — one drug making the inmate unconscious, followed by a muscle relaxer and a final solution that stopped the heart.

The new process will involve only one drug, the sedative used to render inmates unconscious, but in a larger, lethal dose.

The drug will still be administered intravenously.
www.vindy.com/news/2009/nov/14/ohio-alters-death-penalty-dosage-biros-execution/?newswatch

(Includes link to post clemency video.)
www.vindy.com/videos/2009/nov/09/1074/
www.vindy.com/videos/2009/nov/10/1076/

[guest]

Ohio mutilation killer denied clemency

The state parole board on Tuesday rejected a plea of mercy from a man who killed a woman and scattered her body parts, clearing the way for him to become the first person in the nation executed with the injection of a single drug.

Kenneth Biros' execution, scheduled for next month, is temporarily on hold, but it could still proceed if a federal judge allows.

The parole board, which had twice previously rejected clemency for Biros, said it was sticking with its earlier recommendations against mercy.

"The brutality and violence exhibited in the offense outweigh the mitigating factors surrounding Mr. Biros' life prior to the offense, and his adjustment to incarceration," the board determined in its January 2007 ruling.

Biros killed 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Warren in 1991 after he offered to drive her home from a bar. He acknowledges the slaying but says it was done during a drunken rage.

"He's a murderous monster who committed one of the worst crimes that a human being can commit, because he combines torture, rape, robbery, mutilation, dismemberment," Dennis Watkins, prosecutor in Trumbull County where the slaying happened, said Tuesday.

"He is the poster person for the death penalty," Watkins said.

Biros' attorneys argued at a hearing last week that Biros is remorseful, has grown spiritually in prison, has been a model inmate and had a negligible criminal history before the killing.
www.deseretnews.com/article/705345333/Ohio-killer-denied-clemency.html

[guest]

Parole board won't spare Ohio mutilation killer

The state parole board on Tuesday rejected a plea of mercy from a man who killed a woman and scattered her body parts, clearing the way for him to become the first person in the nation executed with the injection of a single drug.

Kenneth Biros' execution, scheduled for next month, is temporarily on hold, but it could still proceed if a federal judge allows.

The parole board, which had twice previously rejected clemency for Biros, said it was sticking with its earlier recommendations against mercy.

"The brutality and violence exhibited in the offense outweigh the mitigating factors surrounding Mr. Biros' life prior to the offense, and his adjustment to incarceration," the board determined in its January 2007 ruling.

Biros killed 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Warren in 1991 after he offered to drive her home from a bar. He acknowledges the slaying but says it was done during a drunken rage.

"He's a murderous monster who committed one of the worst crimes that a human being can commit because he combines torture, rape, robbery, mutilation, dismemberment," Dennis Watkins, prosecutor in Trumbull County where the slaying happened, said Tuesday.

"He is the poster person for the death penalty," he said.

Messages left for Biros' attorneys were not immediately returned. They argued at a hearing last week that Biros is remorseful, has grown spiritually in prison, has been a model inmate and had a negligible criminal history before the killing.

Executions in Ohio have been on hold since Sept. 15 when Gov. Ted Strickland stopped the execution of Rommel Broom after two hourswhen prison officials could not find a usable vein.

U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost last month delayed Biros' Dec. 8 execution but left open the possibility it could happen if the state revised its execution procedures.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced Friday that it was eliminating the standard three-drug lethal cocktail, used in dozens of states, and instead would use a single, powerful dose of anesthetic. A backup method allows for the injection of two drugs directly into an inmate's muscle.

The state says the new policy accomplishes two things: ends a long-running constitutional challenge that holds that the current three-drug system could cause severe pain, and creates a method to avoid situations such as the botched Broom execution.

It planned to have the full policy in place in time for the Biros' execution.

Biros and Engstrom met after work in 1991 at a tavern in Masury in northeast Ohio. Police believed she fled his advances, perhaps ran from his car and fell or was struck or was strangled when Biros tried to quiet her.

A search based on Biros' information led to body parts that had been buried, and some dug up and reburied, near Masury and in adjacent areas in northwest Pennsylvania.
www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=11522098

[thinkinkmesa]

A three-judge panel with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in Cincinnati this morning voted to lift a stay that had been imposed on the execution of a convicted Trumbull County killer.

The move comes in light of a newly approved method of lethal injection in Ohio and paves the way for the execution of Kenneth Biros, scheduled for Dec. 8.

The stay had initially been issued by federal Judge Gregory Frost until it could be proven that the execution could go forward in a method that did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

A parole board in past weeks issued a unanimous recommendation against granting clemency to Biros, 51.

Biros was convicted of raping, torturing, killing and dismembering Tami Engstrom, 22, of Brookfield after he offered to drive her home from a bar Feb. 7, 1991. Parts of her body were spread over western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/530140.html?nav=5021

[thinkinkmesa]

In less than two weeks, convicted killer Kenneth Biros will likely be the first to die under Ohio's new single-dose lethal injection policy.

Despite pleas from Biros' attorneys that the method is too new and untested, a three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled Wednesday morning that the new procedure is not unconstitutional.

The decision did not disappoint Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins.

"Kenneth Biros is a murderous monster, who committed one of the most heinous crimes in the history of Ohio," Watkins said.

The ruling means all executions in the state are back on.

Family members of Tami Engstrom, the woman Biros is convicted of killing and dismembering in February 1991, were ecstatic with the news.

"Oh, I just about jumped out of my chair," said Debi Heiss, Tami's sister. "I've been walking on clouds all day."

Tom Heiss, Tami's brother, agreed.

"I was very happy to hear the news," he said. "The only thought that went through my head was, 'Please, don't let there be a back door that he's going to escape through this time. Let my family get the closure it deserves'."

Biros' attorneys do have a chance to appeal Wednesday's decision. But Watkins believes the language in the federal ruling means Biros will pay the ultimate price for his actions nearly 20 years ago.

"It is a crime that people really don't understand how cruel it really is, because some of these things you don't really don't want to talk about," Watkins said.

For Engstrom's family, the timing of the court's decision couldn't be better.

"We've had 18 years of terrible holidays," said Debi Heiss. "This is just the most glorious news we have ever received."

Kenneth Biros is set to be executed on Tuesday, Dec. 8.
www.wytv.com/content/news/local/story/State-Ruling-Means-Execution-Still-On-for-Biros/Bt5aFcGu4kKGHJuLdhLLOw.cspx

[guest]

Peace Cranes on Death Row

kmw108.livejournal.com/15939.html

[thinkinkmesa]

State asks federal court to deny Biros’ challenge

www.vindy.com/news/2009/dec/02/state-asks-federal-court-to-deny-biros8217/?newswatch

[thinkinkmesa]

A man scheduled to be executed next week in the slaying and dismembering of a woman says the state shouldn't beallowed to rush ahead with its new one-drug lethal injection method.

Condemned inmate Kenneth Biros said in a court filing Wednesday afternoon that the state is sacrificing professionalism and caution in favor of an arbitrary and unprofessional process.

Biros' attorneys are asking U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost to allow them to formally challenge the state's one-drug process announced last month.

Biros has been unsuccessful so far in asking a federal appeals court to stop his execution based on a lawsuit challenging the old three-drug lethal injection method.

Biros killed and dismembered 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Warren in 1991 after he offered to drive her home from a bar.
www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-dismemberment-killer-fights-1-drug-execution-430468.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio dismemberment killer files new delay request
www.waaytv.com/global/story.asp?s=11616955

[thinkinkmesa]

Gov. Ted Strickland has denied clemency for a second time for Trumbull County killer Kenneth Biros.

Strickland released the decision early this afternoon, days before Biros is scheduled to face execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

“My staff and I have again reviewed the record of the proceedings and the evidence presented in Mr. Biros’ case, the judicial decisions regarding Mr. Biros’ conviction, the Application for Executive Clemency filed by Mr. Biros’ attorneys and arguments presented for and against the clemency request, and Mr. Biros’ institutional mental health record,” Strickland said in a released statement. “We have also reviewed letters received in the governor’s office regarding this matter and the unanimous recommendation against clemency forwarded to me by the Ohio Parole Board ... Based on this further review, my original denial of Mr. Biros’ application for executive clemency stands.”
www.vindy.com/news/2009/dec/03/gov-strickland-again-denies-clemency-killer-ken-bi/?newswatch

[thinkinkmesa]

Governor's Statement Regarding Parole Board Recommendation Concerning
Kenneth Biros

Governor Ted Strickland today issued the following statement regarding the Ohio Parole Board’s recommendation against executive clemency for Kenneth Biros:
“Pursuant to his conviction for Aggravated Murder, the Ohio Supreme Court has scheduled the execution of Mr. Kenneth Biros for December 8, 2009. His execution was previously scheduled on March 20, 2007 but due to a federal court stay stemming from his challenge to Ohio’s lethal injection process, the execution did not proceed at that time. Because there was a possibility that the stay might have been lifted, on March 16, 2007, after a thorough review of materials associated with Mr. Biros’ conviction, I denied Mr. Biros’ then pending request for Executive Clemency.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in May 2008 affirming the constitutionality of lethal injection, the District Court’s stay was lifted and the new, December 8, 2009 execution date was set by the Ohio Supreme Court. Given the passage of more than two years since its original review of Mr. Biros’ clemency application, the Parole Board initiated an additional hearing regarding Mr. Biros’ clemency application.
On November 17, 2009, the Board again unanimously recommended the Mr. Biros’ application be denied. My staff and I have again reviewed the record of the proceedings and the evidence presented in Mr. Biros’ case, the judicial decisions regarding Mr. Biros’ conviction, the Application for Executive Clemency filed by Mr. Biros’ attorneys and arguments presented for and against the clemency request, and Mr. Biros’ institutional mental health record. We have also reviewed letters received in the Governor’s office regarding this matter and the unanimous recommendation against clemency forwarded to me by the Ohio Parole Board on January 10, 2007 and November 17, 2009.
Based on this further review, my original denial of Mr. Biros’ application for executive clemency stands.”

governor.ohio.gov/News/PressReleases/2009/December2009/News12309/tabid/1372/Default.aspx

[thinkinkmesa]

Federal appeals court clears the way for Kenneth Biros' execution

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied an appeal from death row inmate Kenneth Biros for a new hearing, further clearing the way for his scheduled execution Tuesday at the state prison in Lucasville.

Biros, a 52-year-old killer from the Youngstown area, still could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He killed 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Warren in 1991 after he offered to drive her home from a bar.

A separate hearing was scheduled before U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost in Columbus on Friday. Lawyers for Biros requested a temporary restraining order to halt the execution. They claim the new mode of lethal injection is unconstitutional.

Biros would be the 33rd inmate executed in Ohio since the death penalty was re-instituted in the state in 1999 but the first under Ohio's new method of lethal injection.

The state attempted to execute Romell Broom in September but failed after a suitable vein could not be found to receive the fatal three-drug cocktail.

Since then, the state has established a procedure that allows for execution using a single drug, a sedative, for executions. Ohio is the first state to try the method.

State officials also instituted a backup plan to inject the drug into a large muscle if a suitable vein can't be found.
blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/federal_appeals_court_clears_t.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Appeals court upholds Ohio killer's execution

An appeals court on Friday refused to delay the execution of an Ohio inmate who could become the first person in the United States put to death with a single drug.

The full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to hear the challenge of Kenneth Biros, who is scheduled to die Tuesday for killing and dismembering a woman he met in a bar in 1991.

A three-judge panel of the court ruled last week that the execution could proceed, because the state adopted a new method that Biros had not previously challenged. The full court upheld that decision Friday.

Biros, however, has already filed a different challenge to the new one-drug method.

One of the 6th Circuit judges said Friday that it was unlikely Biros would be successful in that new challenge. Judge Jeff Sutton said the state's decision to move to the one-drug system addresses two of Biros' primary complaints about the old method, which involved three drugs.

Biros had argued the three-drug method could cause severe pain and could lead to problems if a usable vein couldn't be found.

Biros' attorneys have argued in the past that the one-drug method would be painless. And the state's new system allows executioners to inject drugs into a muscle if a usable vein can't be located.

"That development leaves Biros with serious likelihood-of-success problems," Sutton said.

Judge Boyce Martin, an appeals court judge who would have stopped Biros' execution, criticized Sutton for commenting on an issue that wasn't before the court yet.

Biros' attorneys asked U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost at a hearing Friday for an emergency order delaying the execution. Lawyer Tim Sweeney said the state was rushing unnecessarily to put Biros to death with a new method and implementing a new procedure should be done in a reasonable, deliberate way.

"That doesn't mean months or years, but more than just a few days," he told Frost.

A state attorney argued Ohio took a hard look at its old system and adopted something that eliminated the risk of pain.

"Somebody has to be first," said Charles Wille, an assistant Attorney General.

"This plan is consistent with a long history of states attempting to take a very difficult social responsibility and make it less difficult," Wille said. "Above all to come up with the most humane way it can be done."
www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/appeals-court-upholds-ohio-killer-s-execution-433605.html

[guest]

Kenneth Biros to make second trip to Death House on Monday

The last time Kenneth Biros made the trip to the Death House, he brought a gold cross necklace, a portable compact disc player with some CDs, a rosary and 20 stamped envelopes.

He ate cheese pizza, a salad with Italian dressing, Pepsi, Doritos with French onion dip, blueberry ice cream and cherry pie.

He drank coffee and paced in the tiny cell just 17 steps away from the chamber where two dozen Ohio inmates had been put to death.

And he spent nearly three hours visiting with his mother, his sister, his brother and some friends in a room where they could hug and hold hands.

That was back in March 2007, when the convicted Trumbull County murderer spent more than 30 hours in the brick building behind the razor-topped fence at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Biros, who murdered and dismembered 22-year-old Tami Engstrom, then scattered her body parts in two Pennsylvania Counties, is one of the few Ohio inmates slated to make a return trip to the Death House.

A last-minute stay, issued hours after his scheduled execution time, halted Biros’ walk to the death chamber. Current court action could further delay Biros’ execution, as the state moves to implement a new execution protocol that calls for a single drug injection in place of the former three-drug method, and a direct injection backup if suitable veins are not available to carry an intravenous one.

But barring a court decision, Biros will make the trip to Lucasville and arrive sometime this morning, about 24 hours before his scheduled execution 10 a.m. Tuesday.

“If it’s still on, that’s great,” Tommy Heiss, Engstrom’s brother, told reporters last month following Biros’ second clemency hearing. “If it gets delayed, it’s going to be very sad for our whole family and the community. The way we feel, the way I feel, the way our family and everyone feels, I feel like we’re all a bunch of puppets, and Ken Biros is the one pulling the strings, dancing around the justice system. He’s doing everything he can to buy more time.”
www.vindy.com/news/2009/dec/06/killer-kenneth-biros-to-make-second-trip-to-death/?newswatch

[guest]

Final day at Death House: Clergy, family, special meal, health checks, shower

The Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is a lone, nondescript brick building, detached from the main prison.

It’s the place where 32 Ohio inmates have been put to death since 1999, starting with Cuyahoga County murderer Wilford Berry Jr.

It’s the place Kenneth Biros, convicted in a gruesome 1991 murder in Trumbull County in which the victim was brutalized and dismembered, will take his last breaths, barring court intervention.

Biros’ execution is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday .

He is scheduled to make the trip from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville Monday morning and will likely arrive at the prison Death House between 9 and 10 a.m.

He’ll be under constant observation by at least three execution team members the entire time he is on site, state prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn told reporters during a media open house at the facility late last month.

Inmates spend most of their last 24 hours in a small cell that includes a bed, toilet and sink, television, compact disc player and Bible or other holy book. There are four narrow windows that can be cranked open, on request, to provide more air flow. There’s also a telephone directly outside the cell, from which the inmate can make calls.

Upon arrival, they’re allowed to take some personal belongings with them into the cell. Additionally, they’re “granted special meal requests that are reasonable and things that we can obtain,” Walburn said. “Generally, most of the food is food that we have here in the prison kitchen. We do not buy private meals from restaurants.”

Throughout the day, inmates are visited by the prison’s religious services staff and are subject to mental health and vein checks, in preparation for the next day’s execution. They also spend several hours in the evening in contact visits with family and friends in a nearby room. They’re allowed to hug and hold hands.

On the morning of the execution, inmates have cell-front visits with family and friends, legal counsel and spiritual advisers. They’re allowed to shower before preparation begins for the lethal injection.

About 15 minutes before the execution, the warden approaches the cell door and reads the death warrant to the prisoner. Then, volunteers enter the holding cell and attempt to insert IV shunts, to be used to carry the lethal injection.
www.vindy.com/news/2009/dec/06/final-day-at-death-house-clergy-family-special/?newswatch

[guest]

Eighteen years ago, they argued on opposite sides in the death penalty case over the savage murder and dismemberment of a Brookfield woman.

Today, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and James Lewis of the Ohio Public Defender's Office still disagree on whether Kenneth Biros should be executed on Tuesday as planned. They also disagree on whether the 51-year-old so-called ''crybaby killer'' was or could have become a serial killer.

Together, Watkins and Lewis with the Ohio Public Defender's Office have tried more capital murder cases than any lawyers in the area - one as the accuser, the other as the defender. Previously, they had worked together as assistant prosecutors in the 1970s and early 1980s.

But in 1991, when the two men locked horns in the case of the State of Ohio vs. Kenneth Biros, Lewis said the prosecution's use of graphic photos of dismembered murder victim Tami Engstrom, 22, wrongly inflamed jurors to convict and eventually recommend the death penalty.

Lewis, who teamed up with attorney Sam Amendolara to defend Biros and and who is an opponent of the death penalty, said the photos should have served as proof of a coverup to ''something that went wrong that night,'' not abuse of a corpse.

Lewis still says the crime was one of unpremeditated murder with a extremely heinous attempt to mask a horrible mistake.

He maintains Biros and others on death row would be better served spending life in prison. Lewis justifies that opinion in terms of dollars and cents, considering hourly rates for attorneys who file continuous appeals for death row inmates facing execution.

But Watkins calls Biros the ''worst of the worst'' among the killers with whom he is acquainted.

He scoffs at Biros' last-minute attempts to portray Ohio's one-drug lethal injection protocol as unfit for humans and nothing more than an experiment.

''It's a strong anesthetic,'' Watkins said. And even if there's an initial problem, ''if hospital personnel couldn't find a vein when you go in for an operation, you still return to complete the operation.''

Compare that, he said, to the longer, more-torturous ordeal that Engstrom endured and there should be no argument against lethal injection, he said.

At the trial, through most which Biros wept and sobbed, Watkins produced evidence and testimony that Engstrom was strangled, struck five times with blows from fists or the end of a knife, suffered more than 90 pre-mortum wounds, including defensive wounds on the arms and the right breast, which was totally incised before death.

After death, the body was dismembered, including decapitation.

Watkins has also taken issue with Biros' failure to admit what actually happened.

At the last clemency hearing for Biros, Watkins told parole board members that the killer has produced five different versions of how Engstrom was killed.

Biros first told family and friends that Engstrom jumped from his car and ran off somewhere.

Then he told initial investigators that Engstrom jumped from his car and struck her head on railroad tracks and died accidentally.

A third version told at trial was that the victim fled from his car and that he struck her while driving along the railroad tracks. Biros said Engstrom began swearing at him and throwing rocks at him, so he took a pen knife and stabbed her twice. Then he cut her up and put her body in holes in the ground.

A fourth version given to a Parole Board member had Engstrom panicking jumping out of the car. Biros followed and struck her with the car, breaking her leg. The two began fighting, he cut her and put his hand over her mouth, resulting in her accidental death.

In the final version given to the Parole Board in October, Biros said he was extremely drunk and only remembered cutting Engstrom once with the knife, or maybe she cut herself while grabbing the knife.

When a board member asked him about dismembering the body, Biros said he ''blacked out'' and didn't recall.

''His lies have only gotten bigger,'' Watkins said after the latest clemency hearing.

According to Watkins, Biros is a classic example of a schizoid personality who is suffering from the type of personality disorder found in serial killers.

He suggested that Biros could have been linked to several unsolved murders in and around Youngstown and western Pennsylvania in the late 1980s. His jail mug shot resembles a police composite sketch developed out of one of the attacks on a known prostitute.

In another attack on a 21-year-old transient hooker who worked between Sharon, Pa., and Youngstown, the woman's butchered body was found June 23, 1989, in an Ellsworth Township field. Her torso was dissected and her organs were removed similar to Enstrom's body.

That, Lewis said, is ridiculous.

''For crying out loud, Ken Biros was introduced to Tami Engstrom by Tami's uncle. They were in a bar and there were a lot of people there. It's not like he was lurking in the darkness. Something simply went wrong that one time,'' Lewis said.

Watkins said he has no proof at all linking Biros to past attacks, but in a letter to Parole Board members in regard to Biros, Watkins hinted that the makings of a serial killer are found in Biros.

''The facts show he is an incipient serial killer, an educated loner who kept to himself and hated women. That was my opinion. It is my opinion today. It will never change,'' he said.
www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/530628.html?nav=5021

[thinkinkmesa]

Judge rejects stay in Ohio execution
news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20091207/NEWS01/312070011/

[thinkinkmesa]

Biros prepares for death

While Kenneth Biros' attorneys continue to argue publicly against his lethal injection sentence, the murderer quietly has been preparing to die.

''He doesn't seem that concerned about himself. I think his interest is in spiritually repairing the harm that he's done,'' said Bradley Butters.

Butters is one of two Buddhist prison outreach volunteers the convicted Trumbull County killer has asked to witness his execution. Butters, from Columbus, first met Biros three years ago in a meditation class for inmates at Ohio State Penitentiary.

Butters and Eric Weinberg initially volunteered to go to the prison and work with the prisoners for one year. Over that year, many of the inmates appeared to lose interest except for a handful of prisoners, and Biros who, Weinberg stated in a short essay, was one of the ''rare ones'' who took the lessons to heart. After the year was over, Butters and Weinberg became ''ministers of record'' with the prison so they could continue their meetings with Biros.

And as Biros learned more, he became less self-centered and has taken responsibility for his crimes, Weinberg has written.

Biros, 51, formerly of Brookfield, is scheduled to die by lethal injection in Ohio's death chamber in Lucasville Tuesday morning. He was convicted in 1991 for raping, torturing, killing and then dismembering Tami Engstrom, 22, of Hubbard. He scattered her body parts in sections of Trumbull County and western Pennsylvania.

By this morning, Biros will have arrived at the death house, where he will spend his final 24 hours.

Weinberg said Biros has accepted responsibility for his crimes, but despite speculation by the prosecution that he might be linked to other Northeast Ohio murders, he has never admitted to him of killing anyone in addition to Engstrom.

Weinberg said Biros told him he was genuinely remorseful for his crime.

''He worries about the suffering of the family of his victim. He prays for them and dedicates the worth of his meditations and prayers to their state of mind,'' Weinberg said in a recent phone interview.

And according to Weinberg's essay, Biros has adopted tedious Buddhist rituals that include repeatedly saying the mantra "om ami dewa hri,'' a short prayer asking that all living things be blessed with infinite light.

Biros keeps track of the prayers through origami, according to Weinberg. He creates complex "peace cranes," which he learned from a book in prison.

Each paper crane is made from 390 sheets of paper, folded ten times each. Biros' ritual includes accumulating mantras, which Buddhists usually do with prayer beads similar to Catholic rosaries. He says a prayer for every fold of the crane. Each peace crane represents 3,900 repetitions.

At their last meeting, more than a month ago, Biros gave the two men six cranes one each for Weinberg and Butters, another for a volunteer who went to a meditation retreat, one to a Columbus Lama, one to the head of a monastery in New York and the final one to the Karmapa Lama, the head of the entire lineage in India.

Weinberg and Butters have the final job of witnessing Biros' scheduled death Tuesday morning, by a large injection of anesthetic or a separate injection into one of Biros' muscles.

None of Biros' family will be present for the execution. In addition to his spiritual advisors, his attorney, John Parks, also is scheduled to be present.

Weinberg called Biros' request an ''awesome responsibility,'' one that also means they will be in the same room as the family of Tami Engstrom. Both Weinberg and Butters said they hope the family can continue to heal after the crime.

"Buddhism teaches us to be concerned with the benefit of all beings. It's deep suffering for everyone involved,'' Butters said. ''Our compassion is equal for the victim's and Kenny's family.''

Weinberg said he realizes Biros' crime was horrible, but he believes Biros has progressed in prison, starting from the lowest point anyone can go, and that he has the tools to prepare for death.

''Whoever he was in 1991, he isn't now. They're not killing the guy who committed that crime,'' Weinberg said.

www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/530660.html?nav=5021

[thinkinkmesa]

Biros: Today’s spectacle of capital punishment

During the 19th century executions were public spectacles. Hangings were often witnessed by large crowds. Children propped on their parent’s shoulders to see the last bit of life strangled out a convicted criminal. The last public execution in the United States was carried out on Aug. 14, 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky. It was reported that nearly 20,000 people crowded around the gallows to witness the execution of Rainey Bethea. He was convicted of the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman.

The murder was committed on June 7, 1936. Bethea pled guilty, was sentenced and his state and federal appeals were disposed of by Aug. 5, 1936. He was executed a little more than a week later. The state of Kentucky was portrayed in a less than favorable light by the throng of media that descended on Owensboro for the hanging. The Kentucky legislature, embarrassed by the unfavorable attention, moved to abolish public executions.

In the years leading up to Owensboro, in many towns across America, the actual execution was the jaw-dropping spectacle that attached itself to the ultimate punishment meted out by the criminal justice system. In modern America, the spectacle is not the execution, those are conducted behind prison walls, but rather the incongruous legal maneuvering that results in endless delays and intense pain for the family and friends of victims.

Kenneth Biros may be the nation’s best example of the modern spectacle of capital punishment. Biros admitted to killing Tami Engstrom. He contended that the murder occurred as a result of a drunken rage. The facts indicated that Biros had inflicted 91 injuries upon Engstrom prior to her death by strangulation. Her body was dismembered and buried in several places across two states. Biros was convicted of first-degree murder by a Trumbull County jury. Eighteen years later he remains alive in an Ohio prison. Rainey Bethea was executed 68 days after his crime.

Biros was originally scheduled to die on March 20, 2007. The witnesses were notified. Transferred to Lucasville Prison, the site of Ohio’s death chamber, Biros even had his last specially requested meal right down to the blueberry ice cream.

The governor refused his clemency request and the Federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Biros’, and eight other inmates, lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. They suggested that the three-drug cocktail that anesthetizes, paralyzes and ultimately stops the heart were volatile of the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

The Ohio attorney general asked the court to permit the state to execute Biros even though he had an appeal pending. The 6th Circuit, the same court that tossed out Biros’ claim, also tossed out the attorney general’s request to lift the stay of execution. A desperate appeal by the attorney general to the United States Supreme Court was denied in a one line order hours after the scheduled time for Biros’ execution.

While Biros continued to sit on death row, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Baze v. Rees, rejected a challenge to Kentucky’s method of lethal injection. The court held that lethal injection did not violate the Eighth Amendment.

Botched execution

In the wake of a botched execution in September, Ohio became the first state in the nation to adopt a single-injection method for executing condemned inmates; a process that state officials believe will avoid violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment and prevent any further embarrassing execution malfunctions. The single large dose of anesthetic is similar to the method used by veterinarians to euthanize pets and livestock.

So who do you think Ohio scheduled to be the first person executed under this new method of execution? Kenneth Biros. He is scheduled for execution on Tuesday and on Thursday Gov. Ted Strickland again rejected his appeal for clemency.

Biros previously challenged the three-drug cocktail as cruel and unusual punishment. Now he is challenging the constitutionality of the single drug injection. Biros’ attorney said, “The state should not make his client a guinea pig.” Just as reasonable people in Kentucky were dismayed by the spectacle of a public execution, so too are reasonable people today dismayed by a death penalty that been eviscerated by vexatious claims and dilatory practices.

X Matthew T. Mangino is the former district attorney of Lawrence County and a featured columnist for the Pennsylvania Law Weekly. He can be reached at [e-mail].
www.vindy.com/news/2009/dec/06/biros-today8217s-spectacle-of-capital/