OHIO ARGUES AGAINST EXECUTION DELAYS

COLUMBUS Ohio state attorneys argued on Friday against delaying three upcoming executions on grounds that the condemned killers have little chance of legal victory and repeated postponements are draining state resources.

The state’s first execution in more than three years is scheduled for Wednesday. Death row inmate Ronald Phillips is scheduled to die for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend’s three-yearold daughter in Akron.

He and two other inmates seek more time from the U. S. Supreme Court to appeal Ohio’s lethal injection method.

Their lawyers argue the procedure’s first drug, the sedative midazolam, creates an unconstitutional risk of pain by not rendering prisoners deeply unconscious before two other drugs kick in.

Midazolam has been used in some executions that were problematic, including in Ohio, Arkansas and Arizona.

Ohio argues the state risks “ongoing irreparable harm” if the delays are granted and that “Ohio’s interests are harmed each time it has to stop and start implementation of its execution protocol.”