Suspect in killing should be tried, victim’s family says

At issue is Ohio’s policies concerning the death penalty.

CLEVELAND (AP) — The family of a Northeast Ohio woman cannot grieve while the suspect in her killing continues his court challenge of the death penalty, a relative told a newspaper.

Janet Barnard was killed in a church bathroom in 2005 and prosecutors charged Ronald McCloud with aggravated murder. Since then, McCloud has challenged Ohio’s execution policy and has delayed his criminal trial.

“We talk to the prosecutors, and it’s not their fault,” Barnard’s sister, Karen Lesner, told the Plain Dealer for an article published Saturday. “They want this done. From the very start we were told how heinous and horrible it was and we would have to live through it again, but we would kind of like to get on with it.”

McCloud is one of two men who are arguing Ohio’s lethal injection procedure doesn’t give the quick and painless deaths required by law. Critics argue the three-drug execution procedure could cause inmates to suffer excruciating pain from the final two drugs if the executioner administers too little anesthetic or makes mistakes injecting it.

Neither McCloud nor Ruben Rivera have been convicted of crimes in their unrelated criminal cases. If convicted, both could face the death penalty.

Lawyers for McCloud and Riviera said this is the first time the death penalty has been challenged before the trial begins.

In Ohio, difficulties in recent years with two executions, in which the execution team struggled to find suitable veins in inmates’ arms, brought complaints that the method is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual.

Ohio officials stand by the procedure.

Lesner said she has grown frustrated with the hearings, which began last week in Lorain County, near Cleveland.

“We have no closure,” she said. “We can’t understand why justice can’t be served.”

McCloud, 28, was arrested in 2005 after Barnard was found dead in the men’s room of Living Water Christian Fellowship Church in South Lorain. Police said McCloud murdered and raped the 57-year-old Elyria woman.

Rivera’s unrelated criminal case also has been delayed while he fights the execution procedure. Prosecutors have charged Riviera in the 2004 shooting death of Manuel Garcia. His co-defendant, Carlos Ortega, 25, of Cleveland, was convicted of aggravated murder in January 2005 and sentenced to 27 years to life.

Lesner said her family doesn’t care about the death penalty but just wants to criminal trial to start.

“We keep seeing in the paper what pain and undue suffering he may go through,” she said. “The family has had undue suffering, and she had no rights when she was cruelly murdered.”

Lethal injections are on hold nationally while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge in a case from Kentucky, which is among the roughly three dozen states, like Ohio, that administer three drugs in succession to sedate, paralyze and kill prisoners.

Dr. Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist called by the McCloud’s and Riviera’s lawyers, described Ohio’s execution method as unfit for even euthanizing dogs and cats. He said the drugs used could be extremely painful if improperly administered.

Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist called by prosecutors, said the process is not inhumane and includes enough anesthetic to knock out an average inmate for two hours.