(Reuters) - A federal judge backed new death penalty practices on Friday enacted in Ohio in response to concerns over inconsistent practices earlier this year, clearing the way for the execution of a man convicted of killing his sons.
Reginald Brooks, 66, had sought to stop his execution set for November 15, challenging Ohio death penalty practices after U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost indefinitely stayed another inmate's execution in July, ruling that Ohio's execution rules were enforced inconsistently.
The judge had complained the state was paying only "lip service" to its own standards, and expressed concerns on following formal procedures for preparing the drugs used in lethal injections, documenting the process and following checks and balances to reduce human errors.
Ohio has not executed anyone since Frost stayed the execution of Kenneth Smith in July, instead issuing revised practices in September that it said addressed the concerns.
Since the judge's ruling, Ohio Governor John Kasich has granted stays of execution in August and September citing the ruling. He also commuted the sentence of another death row inmate to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"With some caution, the court today reaches the conclusion that the state of Ohio has apparently learned the lessons of its prior embarrassments and corrected its course," Frost wrote in a 24-page opinion.
Brooks, who was denied clemency by the Ohio Parole Board last month, was convicted of killing his three sons, aged 11 to 17, in 1982. His wife had served him with divorce papers two days before the killings.
Brooks had pleaded that Ohio had made only cosmetic changes and that its death penalty practices were little changed over the last few months and may have worsened.
Ohio said, in effect, that it was now following its own rules and the U.S. Constitution, Frost said.
"It does not matter to this court whether Ohio has acted motivated by admirable intent or whether it has been begrudgingly dragged toward respectability," Frost wrote, adding that the court remained wary because of the state's past struggles with consistent application of the rules.
A joint state Supreme Court and bar association task force was planned to review Ohio's administration of the death penalty, but will not address whether the state should or should not have capital punishment.
Ohio has executed four men in 2011, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
