Post by thinkinkmesa on Mar 5, 2010 21:50:04 GMT -5
Court rejects execution delay for Ohio strangler
A federal appeals court on Friday denied an inmate's request for an execution delay "regretfully," with a judge arguing the court has improperly dealt with challenges to the state's new system.
Lawrence Reynolds, scheduled to die Tuesday for strangling an elderly neighbor for money to feed a drinking habit, now plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution while he challenges Ohio's new one-drug injection procedure.
The state became the first to switch from the common three-drug method to a one-drug injection last year to end a long-running lawsuit hinging on the pain inmates could suffer under the multiple-drug system.
All sides in the death penalty debate agree the single dose is painless, and the first three inmates executed in Ohio with the new method died quickly.
But Reynolds, 43, says the state hasn't corrected problems with accessing inmates' veins before the single drug is used. He also says Ohio's executioners lack proper training and that a new backup method that injects lethal drugs into muscle is untried and could cause pain.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected requests by two of the three inmates executed under the new method who also asked for time to challenge the system, including the first person put to death with a single dose, Kenneth Biros, executed in December.
"We have great sympathy for Reynolds' position," Judge Boyce Martin wrote in Friday's four-page opinion, arguing that the court mishandled Biros' request for a delay.
Nevertheless, Martin said that "as wrong-headed as" the Biros' ruling was, it now controls the court's decision on Reynolds.
"Thus, while others may take up the mantle of pressing the challenge to Ohio's new protocol, we must regretfully DENY Reynolds' motion to stay his execution," Martin wrote.
Martin has used strong language regarding the death penalty before, once saying capital punishment in this country was fundamentally flawed.
While Friday's ruling reveals some conflict on the court, it will take a new decision reversing the Biros decision before other inmates would have any chance for a delay, Kim Rigby, Reynolds' state public defender, said Friday.
The state opposes Reynolds' request for a delay because the federal courts rejected the same argument by Biros and another inmate, Mark Brown, executed last month.
Prosecutors say Reynolds strangled his 67-year-old neighbor Loretta Foster in Cuyahoga Falls near Akron in 1994 for money to fuel his alcohol addiction.
Washington state last week became the second state to change to a one-drug system. None of the country's 34 other death penalty states with the three-drug system has indicated a pending switch.
To read more;http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/court-rejects-execution-delay-for-ohio-strangler-582783.html
A federal appeals court on Friday denied an inmate's request for an execution delay "regretfully," with a judge arguing the court has improperly dealt with challenges to the state's new system.
Lawrence Reynolds, scheduled to die Tuesday for strangling an elderly neighbor for money to feed a drinking habit, now plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution while he challenges Ohio's new one-drug injection procedure.
The state became the first to switch from the common three-drug method to a one-drug injection last year to end a long-running lawsuit hinging on the pain inmates could suffer under the multiple-drug system.
All sides in the death penalty debate agree the single dose is painless, and the first three inmates executed in Ohio with the new method died quickly.
But Reynolds, 43, says the state hasn't corrected problems with accessing inmates' veins before the single drug is used. He also says Ohio's executioners lack proper training and that a new backup method that injects lethal drugs into muscle is untried and could cause pain.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected requests by two of the three inmates executed under the new method who also asked for time to challenge the system, including the first person put to death with a single dose, Kenneth Biros, executed in December.
"We have great sympathy for Reynolds' position," Judge Boyce Martin wrote in Friday's four-page opinion, arguing that the court mishandled Biros' request for a delay.
Nevertheless, Martin said that "as wrong-headed as" the Biros' ruling was, it now controls the court's decision on Reynolds.
"Thus, while others may take up the mantle of pressing the challenge to Ohio's new protocol, we must regretfully DENY Reynolds' motion to stay his execution," Martin wrote.
Martin has used strong language regarding the death penalty before, once saying capital punishment in this country was fundamentally flawed.
While Friday's ruling reveals some conflict on the court, it will take a new decision reversing the Biros decision before other inmates would have any chance for a delay, Kim Rigby, Reynolds' state public defender, said Friday.
The state opposes Reynolds' request for a delay because the federal courts rejected the same argument by Biros and another inmate, Mark Brown, executed last month.
Prosecutors say Reynolds strangled his 67-year-old neighbor Loretta Foster in Cuyahoga Falls near Akron in 1994 for money to fuel his alcohol addiction.
Washington state last week became the second state to change to a one-drug system. None of the country's 34 other death penalty states with the three-drug system has indicated a pending switch.
To read more;http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/court-rejects-execution-delay-for-ohio-strangler-582783.html