Execution date requested for Cleveland killer

February 21, 2012 at 1:15p.m.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Prosecutors have requested an execution date for a Cleveland man on death row since 1986 for killing a produce salesman during a robbery.

The request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason comes as Ohio executions are in the midst of an unofficial moratorium while federal courts weigh the state’s lethal-injection policies.

Mason on Thursday asked the Ohio Supreme Court to set a date for Arthur Tyler, sentenced to die for killing 74-year-old Sander Leach in Cleveland in 1983.

Mason says the time has come for the execution because the 52-year-old Tyler has exhausted all state and federal appeals and hasn’t asked the court to delay the procedure.