Andrew Welsh-Huggins has filed, "Ohio GOP lawmakers: Execution process can be fixed," for AP. It's available via Google News and the New York Times.
Two Republican lawmakers advising Ohio's Democratic governor on changes to the state's lethal injection process say it shouldn't be hard to fix the system.
The lawmakers, both proponents of capital punishment, are among state legislators helping Gov. Ted Strickland find medical personnel willing to help the state improve its injection process. Both say they got involved to make sure recent problems with lethal injection don't lead to attempts to eliminate the death penalty.
"We want to make sure our well-established judicial rights to administer capital punishment in appropriate cases are preserved and will not be defeated by new and ingenious means of dodging the executioner," Sen. Bill Seitz, of Cincinnati, said Wednesday.
Seitz said he's talked to lawyers and doctors but has yet to find anyone willing to come forward. But his conversations have suggested changes Ohio could adopt, ranging from using a retired doctor during executions to requiring that inmates drink enough liquids before an execution to keep their veins healthy.
Sen. Tim Grendell has contacted current and retired doctors looking for advice.
"I find it difficult to believe there isn't a functional solution to this problem," said Grendell, of Chesterland.
The death penalty is temporarily on hold in Ohio while the state develops the new policies. The update follows a botched execution on Sept. 15 that was halted when executioners couldn't find a suitable vein on inmate Romell Broom.
And:
The state said in a court filing last month it was having a hard time finding medical personnel willing to consult about injection because of professional and ethical rules. The rules — which generally prohibit doctors, nurses and others from involvement in capital punishment — are deterring such personnel from speaking publicly or privately about alternatives to the state's lethal injection process.
Among the changes the state is considering: injecting lethal drugs into inmates' bone marrow or muscles as an alternative to — or a backup for — the traditional intravenous execution procedure.
Welsh-Huggins also reported, "Ohio Supreme Court sets 2 new execution dates," also via Google News.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday set two new execution dates even as the state continues to rework its procedures for putting condemned inmates to death by injection.
The execution dates are the first in four and a half months set by the court, which had been scheduling executions about once a month.
The death penalty is temporarily on hold in Ohio while the state develops the new policies. The update follows a botched execution on Sept. 15 that was halted after two hours when executioners couldn't find a usable vein on inmate Rommel Broom.
The court's decision Wednesday set a May 13 execution date for Michael Beuke, 47, convicted of the 1983 murder of Robert Craig, a man he met while hitchhiking on Interstate 275 in southwest Ohio.
And:
The court also set a June 10 execution date for Richard Nields, 59, sentenced to die for the 1997 death of his girlfriend, 59-year-old Patricia Newsome, at their home in Finneytown in southwest Ohio.
The article also notes:
The decision by Gov. Ted Strickland to stop Broom's execution was unprecedented since the United States resumed executions in the 1970s.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost further delayed Broom's execution pending a hearing on the inmate's request that the state not be allowed to try to put him to death again.
Strickland, a Democrat, then granted five-month reprieves to inmates scheduled to die this month and next, and Frost delayed a December execution while the state revises its injection policies.
Earlier coverage from Ohio begins here.
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