Ohio governor delays eight executions
Court fight continues over constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection process
Governor of Ohio 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 scheduled executions.
“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 US 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.
Ronald Phillips, scheduled to die Febebruary 15 for raping and killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in Akron in 1993, is now set for execution on May 10.
Also Friday, the Ohio Parole Board rejected a clemency request by Gary Otte, who shot two people to death in back-toback 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 threedrug 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 threedrug process, the sedative midazolam, doesn’t present a substantial risk of harm.