Ohio executes Johnnie Baston

Johnnie Baston

LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- Ohio has put to death the killer of a Toledo store owner with the country's first-ever use of pentobarbital as a stand-alone execution drug.

Baston was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. by warden Donald Morgan at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Baston died by a lethal dose of the surgical sedative pentobarbital, the first standalone use of the drug to execute someone in the U.S.

Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokesman Carlo LoParo says Baston confessed to his crime in a lie detector test last week.

The 37-year-old Baston was sentenced to die for killing Chong-Hoon Mah, a South Korean immigrant who was shot in the back of the head.

Baston's attorney says his client instructed him not to comment on the issue.

Batson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Ohio and the 43rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999.

Batson becomes the 9th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1243rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: AP, Rick Halperin, March 10, 2011

U.S.: First execution of death row prisoner with single injection of drug used for putting down pets

Holding cell adjacent to
Lucasville's execution chamber

A killer was to be put to death today with a single injection of the sedative pentobarbital - the first time the drug has been used in a U.S. execution.

Johnnie Baston, 37, was scheduled to be executed this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, for the 1994 murder of a store owner.

Pentobarbital is normally used to put down pets and other animals.

In the past, Ohio has had problems inserting needles into prisoners, including the 2009 execution of Romell Broom, who was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a teenage girl.

The governor stopped the procedure after two hours. Broom complained that he was stuck with needles at least 18 times and suffered intense pain.

He has sued, arguing a second attempt to put him to death would be unconstitutionally cruel.

Now Baston's execution is expected to give inmates speedier access to attorneys in case something goes wrong when needles are being inserted and make the process more open.

An attorney concerned about how an execution is going could use a death house phone to contact a fellow lawyer who in turn could alert officials, said a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

But the inmate will have to give up one of his three personal witnesses -usually a family member - to have the lawyer present.

Judges will have the final say on problems, which will limit abuse of the system.

Although the prisoner will now be just a few feet from witnesses as the needles are inserted, a curtain will be drawn and the procedure will still be shown on closed-circuit television.

Using CCTV is meant to protect the anonymity of the executioners and to reduce the pressure they might feel having an audience watching them work.

Even before the change, Ohio had one of the most transparent execution procedures in the country.

Several states, such as Missouri, Texas and Virginia, show nothing of the insertion procedure and allow witnesses to watch only as the lethal chemicals begin to flow.

Oklahoma also uses pentobarbital, a barbiturate, but in combination with other drugs that paralyze inmates and stop their hearts.

Ohio switched to pentobarbital after the company that made the drug it previously used, sodium thiopental, announced production was being discontinued.

Baston was sentenced to die for killing 53-year-old Chong-Hoon Mah, a South Korean immigrant who set up two business in Toledo. He will become the ninth prisoner to be executed this year.

Republican Governor John Kasich last week rejected Baston's plea for mercy based on the victim's family's opposition to capital punishment.

Source: Daily Mail, March 10, 2011

Ohio has success with new death penalty drug

Ohio appears ready to continue an execution rate of about 1 per month following a successful procedure putting to death a killer with a single dose of pentobarbital, a drug never before used by itself in an execution.

37-year-old Johnnie Baston briefly gasped and appeared to grimace during Thursday’s execution at the Southern Correctional Facility in Lucasville, but the moment passed quickly and he lay still for most of the 13-minute process.

Ohio has an execution a month scheduled for the next 12 months with the exception of December, including an April 12 date for Clarence Carter, sentenced to die for beating to death a fellow Hamilton County Jail inmate in 1998.

Baston was sentenced to die for the 1994 shooting of 53-year-old Chong Mah, a downtown Toledo shopkeeper.

Source: Associated Press, March 11, 2011
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