From Ohio

"Ohio to alter execution for cancer-stricken inmate," is the AP report filed by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

Ohio will make it easier for a condemned inmate who lost his larynx to cancer to make a final statement at his execution, a gesture of flexibility the state argues is one more reason a federal judge should dismiss a lawsuit challenging Ohio's execution procedures.

Kenneth Smith is scheduled to die July 19 for his involvement in the slaying of a husband and wife in their Hamilton home in 1995 during a robbery. Since his incarceration, Smith, 45, had his larynx removed and uses an artificial voice box.

For the execution, the state will raise the head of the gurney where Smith will lie about four inches and let him keep one arm free to make it easier to use his voice box, according to an affidavit by Edwin Voorhies, South Regional Director for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

It would be the first time an Ohio inmate has not been completely strapped down since the state resumed executions in 1999.

Smith will be able to use his free hand "to make a final statement, to help clear his throat, and to do other things which his condition requires," Voorhies said in the affidavit filed Friday in federal court in Columbus.

Attorneys for Smith and other inmates are challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection procedure, arguing that, among other things, the use of a new drug, pentobarbital, remains unproven and could fail to put an inmate to death.

In recent years, federal courts have rejected most of the arguments against Ohio's injection process, based on a 2008 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld injection as a method in a Kentucky case.

And:

Smith's lawyers said Wednesday they were pleased the state is changing its policies to accommodate Smith. Attorney Carol Wright added that the defense still believes there are issues with Ohio's lethal injection process that need to be resolved.

Earlier lethal injection coverage from Ohio begins at the link; related posts are in the lethal injection index.