Ohio: "We have a constitutional duty to provide health care for DR inmates until execution commences."

Inmate Lawrence Reynolds' decision to attempt death on his terms before the state could execute him left Ohio officials with a dilemma.

Save him or let him die?

Reynolds, 43, who was to be lethally injected at 10 a.m. today, got a one-week reprieve yesterday as he regained consciousness in a Youngstown hospital after an apparent suicide attempt late Sunday.

The Akron man now has until next Tuesday to recover from the overdose before the state injects him with a dose of thiopental sodium, a powerful anesthetic that will most likely kill him within minutes.

The state will pay for Reynolds' medical treatment until he can be returned to Death Row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, where he was housed, or to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville, where executions take place.

Many Dispatch.com readers who commented on the story yesterday seemed to agree with this reaction: "We were gonna kill him anyways, why not just let him ... die from the overdose?"

Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the state has two legal obligations.

"We have a constitutional duty to provide health care for this inmate until the execution commences. And we are legally responsible to carry out executions under the law. We will meet both our legal obligations."

Walburn said a full investigation is being conducted into how Reynolds, while on Death Row at the state's maximum-security prison, obtained drugs sufficient to cause an overdose.

He was found unconscious in his cell at the Youngstown prison at 11:30 p.m. Sunday. He was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital, where he remained in serious condition until midday yesterday, when he showed signs of regaining consciousness and was upgraded to stable condition.

Reynolds was not expected to be released from the hospital yesterday.

That prompted Gov. Ted Strickland to use his executive clemency power to grant a reprieve. Had the governor not acted, Reynolds' death warrant would have expired, forcing the Ohio Supreme Court to set a new execution date several weeks or months in the future.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., said Reynolds' suicide attempt raises ethical questions for both the state and medical personnel.

"The ordinary care would be to keep him in the hospital under observation. For doctors it raises the concern, 'Is he being patched up enough so he can be executed?' " he said. "What are our standards of decency in these life-and-death situations?"

While suicide attempts are common in prison, it is the first time an Ohio Death Row inmate tried to kill himself before the state could do it.

Such incidents are more common in Texas, the national leader in executions.

In 2006, condemned prisoner Michael Dewayne Johnson slit his throat less than 24 hours before his scheduled execution using a makeshift knife made from a sharpened piece of metal on a wood stick. His final legal appeal was pending.

Also in Texas in 1997, David Lee Herman slashed his throat and slit his wrist, but he was flown to a hospital where he was treated and returned to prison. He was executed about 24 hours later.

Source: Columbus Dispatch, March 9, 2010