Execution set for Ohio inmate in gay bar killing

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has set a 2015 execution date for a condemned inmate who killed a man in Cincinnati whom he met in a gay bar in 1985.

Robert Van Hook claimed temporary insanity, but never denied strangling and then stabbing David Self to death at his Cincinnati apartment.

The court today set a March 12, 2015, date for Van Hook, whose death sentence was reinstated four years ago after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his claims of ineffective legal aid during his trial.

The court’s announcement comes one day after the Ohio prisons department said it might seek legislation to help acquire new supplies of its capital punishment drug without which future executions might not be possible.

Ohio’s current execution drug supply expires in September.