In Ohio

"Courts Reject Inmate’s Petition Claiming He is too Fat for Execution," is Debra Cassens Weiss' article on today's ABA Journal web edition.

Two appellate courts have rejected a convicted murderer’s request for a stay of execution that contends his obesity makes him a poor candidate for lethal injection.

Lawyers for inmate Richard Cooey claimed it would be difficult to find a vein for lethal injection because of their client’s weight, the Associated Press reports. Cooey is 5-feet, 7-inches tall and weighs 267 pounds. The lawyers say Cooey packed on the pounds because of fattening prison food and limited opportunities for exercise.

Both the Ohio Supreme Court and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused yesterday to delay the execution.

"Obese killer loses lethal-injection appeal," is Alan Johnson's report in the Columbus Dispatch.

Cooey's public defender attorneys are relying on a decision earlier this year by Common Pleas Judge James Burge of Lorain County, who ruled that the lethal injection protocol "creates an unnecessary and arbitrary risk that the condemned will experience an agonizing and painful death."

Cooey would be the first Ohioan put to death in 18 months as a result of a prolonged national debate on the legality of lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the lethal injection protocol is not unconstitutional.

State attorneys said previously that neither Cooey's weight nor the condition of his veins proves he would suffer "cruel and unusual punishment" if he is executed. Further, many of Cooey's arguments are recycled from previous appeals, the state said.

The public defender has also filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court challenging the legality of lethal injection. Cooey and 15 other Death Row inmates are represented in the case.

Earlier coverage of the Cooey case is here.  Coverage of Judge James Burge's June ruling is here.