EXECUTION Lethal injection goes forward as court rejects Smith's appeal

William H. Smith claimed he should be spared because of a brain abnormality.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday night to delay the execution of an Ohio prisoner who claims he has a brain abnormality that may have affected his behavior in 1987 when he raped and murdered a woman.
William H. Smith, 47, is to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. today at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for the 1987 rape, robbery and murder of Mary Bradford at her Cincinnati apartment.
Justice John Paul Stevens, who handles appeals from Ohio, referred the matter to the full court, and the court denied the request to hear Smith's appeal without issuing further comment, officials with the Supreme Court said Monday night.
Smith's lawyer, Jennifer Kinsley, said Monday night her client is out of appeals and no further actions were planned on his behalf.
"We're done with our appeals," she said.
Smith, 47, claims the abnormality detected during a brain scan after he fainted in prison may have affected his behavior when he stabbed Bradford, raped her as she lay dying and then made three trips to his car to steal her stereo and two television sets. The defense is not challenging Smith's conviction but says the abnormality could have spared him from the death sentence at trial.
Smith's attorneys had argued that an independent analysis of tests on his brain needed to be done.
Thirteen judges from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Monday with a three-judge panel that lifted a stay of execution, saying that two brain tests did not prove Smith has an abnormality. The appeals court said the defense introduced no new issues that warrant reconsideration of the sentence and rejected the argument that Smith's trial lawyers failed to develop evidence that he had brain damage.
Gruesome crime
Smith and Mary Bradford met a bar in 1987, where they drank together for several hours before going to her Cincinnati apartment, police said. After using cocaine and having sex, authorities said the two argued when Smith accused Bradford of owing him money for cocaine.
Smith, also of Cincinnati, told police Bradford grabbed a knife that he took away, and she was stabbed during the struggle. Bradford, 47, had 10 stab wounds in the neck and chest, and Smith had sex with her again as she lay on her bed bleeding, police said.
After Smith fainted in December when told his execution date had been set, a CT scan showed a lesion to his brain, Kinsley said. She would not describe the abnormality further. Prosecutors had a more precise magnetic resonance imaging test done on Smith on Feb. 25 as recommended by doctors.
Smith's attorneys say he received electric shock treatment at a state hospital from age 9 through 14 for hyperactive behavior, which could have caused the abnormality. State lawyers said they could not find hospital records to establish that he received shock treatment.
The abnormality was detected in the cranial nerves that control facial muscles and the sense of taste and relay sound and balance information from the ear to the brain, prosecutors said.
"This condition does not in any way explain why Smith stabbed Mary Bradford 10 times, carried his bleeding victim to the bedroom and then raped her," Attorney General Jim Petro's office said in a federal court filing.
Lack of evidence cited
On Monday, Gov. Bob Taft rejected a request to commute Smith's sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole, citing a lack of evidence to support his brain abnormality claim. Ohio has executed 15 people since resuming executions in 1999.
The three appeals judges overturned a decision by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel, who ruled Feb. 28 that Smith's execution should be postponed to allow for more medical tests.
Smith was moved Monday morning from death row in Mansfield to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, where executions take place.
He listened to music on a cassette player, flipped through television channels, read his Bible and remained upbeat and cooperative on Monday, prison spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. She said he ordered a bag of Doritos nacho chips and a Pepsi for his special meal.
Bradford's grandson, Timmy Bradford, of Cincinnati, was to witness the execution.
Kinsley said Smith had rejected witnesses, but Dean said Monday night that two brothers and a cousin planned to ask him to reconsider and allow them to be witnesses.