Condemned man’s bogus claim

Condemned man’s bogus claim

It has been nearly 29 years since Ronald Post shot 53-year-old Helen Vantz twice in the head while she was working as a clerk at a motel in Elyria. And 28 years since he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Post has stayed alive through various appeals, all rejected by courts up to the Supreme Court of the United States. But his most recent claim is also the most novel.

During his incarceration, Post has gained weight — a lot of weight. His lawyers claim he is 480 pounds. The state said it recently weighed him at 396 pounds. The lawyers claim that his weight and medical condition create “a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death.”

State’s responsibility

It is incumbent on the state to conduct executions in a dignified and humane manner — regardless of the brutality a murderer may have shown his victims.

Patients even more obese than Post undergo medical treatments every day that require the insertion of IVs. Obesity would not be a cause for abandoning medical treatment for an innocent person; it is not a reason to postpone Post’s long-overdue date with the executioner. That date, set by the Ohio Supreme Court, is Jan 13, 2013.