Friday afternoon, Ohio Governor John Kasich issued a news release, postponing the execution of Gregory Lott. Here's the full text:
Today Gov. John R. Kasich announced that the execution date of Gregory Lott has been moved to Nov. 19. Lott was previously scheduled to be executed on March 19 for murdering John McGrath in 1986 in Cuyahoga County.
"Governor delays killer's execution," is by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, AP Legal Affairs Writer. It's via the Newark Advocate.
Attorneys for Lott have sued in federal court to stop his execution, arguing the Ohio’s new two-drug combination puts him at risk of unnecessary pain and suffering. Lott’s attorneys also allege Ohio is breaking state and federal laws because it has obtained the drugs without a prescription.
The reprieve says only that “circumstances exist justifying the grant of a temporary reprieve.”
Death row inmate Dennis McGuire, during his 26-minute execution on Jan. 16, made repeated snorting sounds and opened and shut his mouth several times.
McGuire’s family sued the state, arguing the execution was cruel and inhumane. Initial reviews by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction determined written procedures were followed and there is no need to change them.
The prisons agency is conducting a longer review looking at what happened during the execution.
"Next Ohio execution postponed by Kasich," by Alan Johnson in the Columbus Dispatch.
Unresolved concerns about the drugs used to execute Dennis McGuire last month prompted Gov. John Kasich yesterday to postpone the scheduled March 19 lethal injection of Gregory Lott.
Without comment, Kasich rescheduled Lott’s execution, delaying it for eight months, until Nov. 19.
Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said the governor wants to give the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction time to complete its internal review of McGuire’s Jan. 16 execution.
And:
Attorneys for Lott, 51, quickly challenged his upcoming execution, arguing that the drugs could cause “unnecessary pain and suffering” in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 19 in U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost’s court.
The next question involves what happens to four other convicted killers scheduled to be put to death before November. They are Arthur Tyler, May 28; Phillips, July 2; William Montgomery, Aug. 6; and Raymond Tibbetts, Oct. 15.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, "Kasich grants condemned Cleveland killer a reprieve from March execution," by John Caniglia.
The governor's move comes three weeks after the state executed Dennis McGuire, an act that took 26 minutes and caused his family members to complain that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
Initial reports from the prison system show the execution followed state policies and procedures. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is doing a broader examination into McGuire's death.
"Gregory Lott committed a heinous crime, for which he will be executed, and his execution is being moved back to Nov. 19, as the (prison system) finishes its review,'' said Rob Nichols, Kasich's press secretary.
McGuire's death marked the first time any state used a two-drug cocktail of hydromorphone and midazolam in an execution. Witnesses said he spent several minutes gasping for air, as he arched his back and clenched his arms, hands and shoulders.
A Louisiana child killer, Christopher Sepulvado, was to die by the same drugs Wednesday, but a federal judge postponed it to allow attorneys to debate whether the drugs amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
"Ohio governor delays planned execution using two-drug method," by Kim Palmer of Reuters, via the Chicago Tribune.
Ohio on Friday delayed its next scheduled execution to complete a review of a new two-drug combination that left a condemned inmate convulsing and appearing to struggle for breath for several minutes as he was put to death in January.
Gregory Lott, 52, had been scheduled to die March 19 by a lethal injection of the same combination of the sedative midazolam and the pain killer hydromorphone that Ohio had used in the January execution.
NBC News posts, "Ohio Postpones Execution Amid Drug Controversy," by Daniel Arkin.
Amid controversy over the reportedly prolonged execution of an Ohio man injected with a never-before-used drug cocktail, Gov. John Kasich has delayed the scheduled execution of a convicted killer until Nov. 19.
Kasich did not cite a specific reason for the postponement, but the state has been ensnared in a debate over the drugs used in lethal injections after convicted killer Dennis McGuire was injected with an untested mix of midazolam and hydromorphone — and then reportedly took nearly 25 minutes to die as he appeared to gasp for air.
Cleveland Plain Dealer columnis Phillip Morris writes, "Gregory Lott should not be put to death." Here's an extended excerpt:
So why should we care about this execution?
Because it’s possible we’re killing the wrong guy.
We know that Lott ranked with the lowest kind of vermin that walk the earth. He ruthlessly preyed on the elderly and the defenseless. He appeared to make it his personal mission to depopulate East Cleveland of its few remaining white senior citizens in 1986, when he robbed seven of them in their homes in June and July of that summer.
He was no stranger to McGrath, the man he is convicted of killing, having broken into the man’s house several times, leaving finger prints everywhere.
He apparently considered the old man his personal ATM, and repeatedly robbed and burglarized him with a reckless abandon.
It wasn’t that difficult to convict Lott after he was identified as a suspect and apprehended. Indeed, before a three-judge panel convicted him, Lott confessed to the murder in an attempt to plea bargain for life in prison.
But so certain was the state of Lott’s guilt, a man of borderline mental intelligence, that no plea deal was offered and, after a perfunctory 2-hour trial, he was convicted to die.
But here’s the problem:
During the eight days that McGrath, the victim, survived, he would wake up and talk. He talked to police, and he talked to at least one other patient that shared a room with him.
He talked about the robbery. He talked about a neighborhood barber shop. He talked about the man who attacked him. He described him. But the man he described looked nothing like Lott.
No one appears to have ever taken that physical discrepancy with enough seriousness.
Earlier coverage of Ohio's execution of Dennis McGuire begins at the link.
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