Still waiting for word from Supreme Court on Biros

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A Brookfield man convicted of killing a woman and scattering her remains across Ohio and Pennsylvania was at Ohio’s death house today, and his execution team was prepared to carry out the lethal injection — even though an appeals court had blocked it.

The execution team for Kenneth Biros would stay in a holding pattern while the state appeals the ruling, prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said Tuesday.

The execution was scheduled to start at 10 a.m., but the state has until midnight before Biros’ death warrant expires, Dean said.

By early afternoon today, there was no word from the U.S. Supreme Court. The state also asked that all 14 judges in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati consider allowing a hearing on its request to go ahead with the execution.

Biros, 48, acknowledged that he killed Tami Engstrom, 22, in 1991, but he said he did it during a drunken rage.

A panel of judges on the 6th Circuit on Monday upheld a lower court’s order blocking the execution, saying Biros should be able to continue appealing a lawsuit with other inmates arguing that Ohio’s method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

Other executions have been delayed in the past year because of the suit, although a former cult leader was put to death despite his appeal.