Governor postpones execution

July 22, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich has postponed until late next year the execution of a man who murdered and partially dismembered an Akron women 14 years ago.

Kasich issued the temporary reprieve for Brett Hartman to give the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction more time to change its execution procedures, after a federal judge ruled the state was lax in following its own lethal injection policies.

Hartman was convicted of murdering 46-year-old Winda Snipes, a woman he had met in an Akron bar. According to documents, he slit her throat, stabbed her 38 times and cut off her hands.

He has denied being involved in the murder. But the state parole board this week, in a unanimous decision, recommended that Kasich deny clemency in the case.

Hartman was to make the trip to the Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville on Aug. 16. He’s now scheduled for execution Nov. 13, 2012.

Hartman is the second death-row inmate in recent weeks to have his execution postponed. Kenneth Smith was to be executed earlier this week for murdering a Hamilton couple in 1995, but a federal judge halted the execution after determining that prison officials were not following their own procedures during lethal injections.

According to the decision, the prison officials did not ensure the required number of prison staff were present during executions, adequately document the mixing of lethal injection drugs or confirm that trained people were mixing those drugs.

The state did not appeal the decision, and prison officials are working to revamp their procedures to address the issues involved.

Neither Kasich’s office nor DRC officials expect to postpone any of the other nine executions scheduled during the next 14 months. Bill Slagle, convicted in the August 1987 murder of a neighbor, would be the next, on Sept. 20.