Request for Stay of Execution Filed in Ohio

The motion filed by Gregory Lott's attorneys is available in Adobe .pdf format.

"Inmate’s attorneys ask to stop execution, citing possible ‘lingering death’," is by Alan Johnson for the Columbus Dispatch.

Gregory Lott, the next Ohio killer scheduled for execution, could suffer a “lingering death” for 45 minutes after being officially declared dead — and might even be resuscitated, his attorneys argued in a court motion filed yesterday.

Federal public defenders representing Lott asked U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost to stop Lott’s scheduled March 19 execution, citing problems with the Jan. 16 lethal injection of Dennis McGuire. They said there is a “substantial risk of lingering death, of degradation, and of unnecessary pain and suffering” under Ohio’s current process.

Lott’s attorneys asked for time beyond the 30-day notification that Ohio officials promised if they plan to make changes in the two-drug protocol used to execute McGuire.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, "Attorneys for condemned Cleveland killer seek injunction of death penalty to litigate lethal injection issues," by John Caniglia.

The attorneys said in Monday's filing that it could take 45 minutes before Lott would die of the injection of 40 mg of hydromorphone, a painkiller, and 10 mg of midazolam, a sedative. The filing before U.S. Judge Gregory Frost mentions the lingering death of Dennis McGuire, who was executed Jan. 16 using the two-drug concoction. His execution lasted 26 minutes. A prison expert had said it would take a fraction of that time.

"Especially in light of the public spectacle created by the execution of Dennis McGuire, (Frost's) careful consideration of Lott's claim serves the public interest and lends legitimacy to the death penalty in Ohio,'' Lott's attorneys wrote in the request for the injunction.

A spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose office has prosecuted the cases, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Lott's execution is scheduled for March 19.

Earlier coverage from Ohio begins a the link.