Kasich postpones 9 Ohio executions

By Marc Kovac | May 2, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich postponed nine executions Monday, the latest rescheduling as the state deals with legal challenges to its lethal-injection process and attempts to locate supplies of the drugs used to put Ohio inmates to death.

The move came a week after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to a full-panel review of Ohio’s adopted execution method after an earlier federal magistrate judge’s ruling the lethal-injection process proposed by the state was unconstitutional.

The new review will not be completed until mid-June at the earliest, according to the governor’s office, prompting the governor’s decision.

Ronald Phillips, convicted in the rape and murder of an Akron girl in 1993, was scheduled to be executed next week. He’ll now face a July 26 execution date.

Gary Otte, facing a June 13 execution for killing two people in Cuyahoga County in 1992, was moved to Sept. 13.

And Raymond Tibbetts, facing a July 26 execution for the murder of his wife an an elderly man in Hamilton County in 1997, was moved to Oct. 18.

Among the other postponements announced included:

Alva Campbell Jr., convicted in the 1997 murder of a Franklin County man, was moved to Nov. 15 from Sept. 13.

William Montgomery, convicted in the 1986 murder of two women in Lucas County, was moved to Jan. 3, 2018, from Oct. 18.

Robert Van Hook, convicted in the 1985 murder of a Hamilton County man, was moved to Feb. 13, 2018, from Nov. 15.

The postponements continue a yearslong legal challenge over Ohio’s lethal-injection protocols after the execution of Dennis McGuire in January 2014.

McGuire, who received a capital sentence for the rape and murder of a pregnant Preble County woman, gasped for breath during what witnesses described as a prolonged procedure under the state’s two-drug execution method.

In early 2015, state prison officials abandoned that combination, switching to two different drugs, though that protocol has not been used.

Ohio and other states have struggled to find supplies of execution drugs, after manufacturers blocked their use for lethal injections. More than 30 executions are scheduled through early 2021.