Judge Rules To Change Ohio Lethal Injection Method
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ELYRIA, Ohio — Ohio’s method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because two of three drugs it uses for lethal injection can cause “an agonizing and painful death,” a county judge ruled yesterday.
Ohio must stop using its three-drug combination and instead use a single, anesthetic drug to execute its condemned prisoners, because the current lethal injection process doesn’t provide the quick and painless death required by Ohio law, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said.
Judge Burge ruled in favor of Ruben Rivera and Ronald McCloud, who are awaiting trial in separate murders cases and could receive death sentences if convicted.
An American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented the two men, Jeffrey Gamso, predicted death row inmates will “breathe a bit of a sigh of relief because they would rather, if they are going to be killed, they would rather not be tortured to death.”
State officials were reviewing the decision and had not determined if they would appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, a spokesman for the state attorney general, Jim Gravelle, said.
