Ohio Supreme Court promises more time between executions

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court says it will schedule executions at least three weeks apart in the future as the state faces two executions in a row next month.

The court announced the change today in a decision denying Marvallous Keene’s request to delay his July 21 execution for killing five people in a 1992 rampage in Dayton.

Keene’s public defenders had asked the Supreme Court to delay the execution to give them more time to prepare.

Rachel Troutman, an assistant public defender, says the office does not have the resources to process two execution cases within a month.

State public defenders are also representing John Fautenberry, scheduled to die July 14 for the fatal shooting of a man in southwest Ohio during a 1991 multistate series of killings.