Death Penalty News

Brandon Rhode The Georgia Supreme Court has delayed tonight's execution of Brandon Rhode, who tried to kill himself Tuesday morning. It has been rescheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, according to the state Department of Corrections. Rhode's attorney, Brian Kammer, filed a motion for an emergency stay after learning of his client's suicide attempt, arguing "Mr. Rhode is incompetent to be executed and his execution would violate the Eighth Amendment." In the motion, Kammer said he received no information regarding his client's whereabouts or condition. "Execution of Mr. Rhode ... does not comport with [Department of Corrections] lethal injection protocols and is nothing less than a ‘descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint.' " Granting of the stay gives Rhode the opportunity to file an application challenging his mental competency to be executed, court spokeswoman Jane Hansen said. Rhode would be ...

They wait alone, in cells of just a few square meters, often for 15 or 20 years, sometimes more. For US inmates on death row, the sentence is just the beginning of a long countdown to execution. The lengthy wait and harsh conditions that US death row prisoners face has sparked debate over whether they are being punished twice, with long-term imprisonment and execution -- and even US Supreme Court justices have weighed in. On average, 13 years elapses between the time a death sentence is handed down and carried out. During that time, inmates are kept under close guard, confined to their cells alone for 23 hours a day with limited visitation opportunities. Their activities are often reduced to nothing more than filing new appeals against their death sentence. In 2005, a record 137 of the 3,263 prisoners on US death row were over 60 years old, almost four times more than a decade earlier. In Kentucky, more people on death row have died of natural causes than have been executed in the...

The next inmate to be executed in Ohio faces heightened security this weekend as the state tries to avoid another suicide attempt on death row. Darryl Durr is under a 72-hour watch at a Youngstown prison. He is scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection for strangling a 16-year-old girl in suburban Cleveland in 1988. Prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn says the cell watch has been standard in the days before executions. But now the cell includes a Plexiglas-like door so guards can keep better surveillance. Also, staff will evaluate whether Durr can have certain personal items, including shoestrings. The moves come after the March 7 attempted suicide of inmate Lawrence Reynolds, who overdosed on antidepressants 2 days before his scheduled execution. Source: Associated Press, April 17, 2010

Inmates on Ohio's death row are going to have less contact with visitors, more inspections of their property, and tighter rules on their medications. That's all because of a drug overdose earlier this month by inmate Lawrence Reynolds Junior....an incident that delayed his lethal injection. Source: WCPN News, March 25, 2010 Ohio Death Row Inmate Overdosed On Antidepressant State records show that an Ohio inmate tried to commit suicide with an overdose of antidepressants 2 days before his scheduled execution to deny the state the chance to kill him. Forty-three-year-old Lawrence Reynolds was executed by lethal injection on March 16 after a 7-day postponement. He had been found unconscious in his death row cell on March 7. An investigation released by the Ohio prisons department Thursday says Reynolds took about 30 prescribed tablets and likely "cheeked" the pills and stockpiled them. The report says medical and security staff failed to properly monitor Reynolds...

Lawrence Reynolds (pictured) died from an overdose this morning -- one legally administered by the state of Ohio. The convicted killer from Akron, who unsuccessfully tried to take his own life with an overdose of a prescription medication on March 7, was declared dead at 10:27 this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. The cause of death: a large, intravenous dose of thiopental sodium, a powerful anesthetic. Reynolds, 43, was convicted and sentenced to death for the Jan. 11, 1994, slaying of 67-year-old Loretta Foster, a widow who was one his neighbors in Cuyahoga Falls, an Akron suburb. Reynolds tried to sexually assault Foster before beating her with a wooden tent pole and strangling her. Reynolds' suicide attempt and brief hospitalization prompted Gov. Ted Strickland to use his executive clemency power to grant a 1-week reprieve. Before the execution, Reyolds gave a last statement. He said, "I came in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Er...

Convicted killer Lawrence Reynolds, whose suicide attempt postponed his execution for a week, arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville shortly after 10 a.m. today. Reynolds, 43, was transported to the Lucasville prison, where executions take place, from the Ohio State Penitentiary, a trip of about 250 miles. He is scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Tuesday for the Jan. 11, 1994, strangulation and beating death of Loretta Foster, 64, his Akron neighbor. On March 7, Reynolds tried to kill himself with an overdose of a prescription pills. He was hospitalized after being found unconscious in his cell, but was treated and returned to prison within 48 hours. An investigation is under way into how Reynolds, while under an around-the-clock watch on Death Row at the state's maximum-security prison, obtained drugs sufficient to cause an overdose. His suicide attempt prompted Gov. Ted Strickland to use his executive clemency power to grant a one-week reprieve. ...

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 ov...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Ted Strickland on Monday postponed the execution of a convicted killer who managed to take an overdose of pills in his death row cell and was found unconscious just hours before he was to be driven to his execution. Lawrence Reynolds Jr., 43, who was sentenced to die for killing his neighbor in 1994, was found unconscious around 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said. Reynolds, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday, was showing signs of consciousness Monday at a Youngstown hospital, but medical staff weren't prepared to release him, Walburn said. He was upgraded from serious to stable condition. The inmate took the pills despite being under a 72-hour watch — routine for inmates approaching an execution date — that includes monitoring by prison guards outside the cell, Walburn said. Guards are supposed to keep inmates under constant observation, making log entries every 30 minute...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Prison officials in Ohio say an inmate scheduled to be executed Tuesday has been found unconscious in prison. Prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn says Lawrence Reynolds Jr. (pictured) was found unconscious about 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown. Walburn says it appears Reynolds injured himself and that authorities are investigating a possible attempted overdose of pills. She did not know what kind. Reynolds is hospitalized in serious condition. Walburn says the state has a constitutional duty to care for Reynolds. It was unclear Monday whether his execution would go forward. He was sentenced to die for the 1994 killing of a 67-year-old neighbor woman. Source: AP, March 8, 2010 Inmate who killed Cuyahoga Falls woman found unconscious in cell; execution might be delayed Tuesday's scheduled execution of convicted killer Lawrence Reynolds Jr. might be delayed after he was found unconscious in his cell Sunday night. Reynolds — who w...

All you crooks might want to think twice before bumping somebody off in Ohio. Because the state now has a proven method for putting murderers to death quickly and seemingly without pain and a long line of death row inmates waiting to make the trip to Lucasville for their special meals and last words. Executions are currently scheduled through October after the Ohio Supreme Courts recent decisions in several cases. On Friday, justices set Oct. 6 for the execution of Michael Benge, convicted in the 1993 murder of his girlfriend in Butler County. Granted, we're no Texas. Yet. That state accounts for 449 of the 1,195 inmates executed in the United States since 1976, according to statistics compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center (online at http://www.deatpenaltyinfo.org/ ). Our once-a-month execution schedule won't match the 24 executions in the Lone Star State last year. Ohio has put 35 inmates to death since 1999, including last month's execution of Mark Aaron ...

A federal court has lifted the stay of execution in the case of Kenneth Biros, who is now due to be put to death in Ohio on 8 December under the state’s new lethal injection procedures. The Ohio parole board has voted against clemency, but this vote is not binding on the governor. On 25 November, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit lifted the stay of execution that had been imposed on 19 October by a District Court judge in the context of ongoing litigation on Ohio’s lethal injection protocol. On 13 November, the Ohio authorities announced that they had decided to change the execution procedure, from a three-drug process to one using a large dose of one chemical, thiopental sodium, an anesthetic. The state also revealed that it had developed a “back-up procedure” for cases when a suitable vein could not be found in a condemned inmate, as happened in the case of Romell Broom in September (see UA 245/09, and update). This back-up procedure would involve...

Romell Broom knew he was about to die when the Ohio prison warden came to his cell, escorted by guards, and read his death warrant. A court had rejected his final appeal. Soon, two nurses arrived and told Broom to lie down as they tried to insert a needle into his arm, readying a vein to receive the three drugs that would knock him out and eventually kill him. The protocol is a familiar one, used by 35 states and the federal government, but the nurses working on Broom on Sept. 15 could not find a suitable vein. They jabbed his arms, his hands, his right ankle and his left leg. Once, they hit a bone. Broom tried to help, then cried. After about two hours, unable to establish an intravenous connection, authorities called off the execution. Gov. Ted Strickland (D) granted a one-week reprieve, since extended while a federal court considers a defense claim that a second execution attempt would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Strickland's decision to delay two more execut...

The botched execution of Romell Broom causes Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland to put executions on hold, the latest in a string of challenges to capital punishment. An Execution Mired in Controversy Rekindles Long-Smoldering Capital Punishment Debate On Sept. 15, Romell Broom, who was convicted of abducting, raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in Cleveland in 1984, survived his execution when executioners failed for two hours to find a usable vein to administer a lethal injection. Observers described a scene during which Romell attempted to aid the executioners in locating a vein, and then broke into tears before Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland intervened to issue a one-week reprieve. Broom’s lawyers have since claimed a second execution attempt to execute Broom would constitute cruel and unusual punishment and violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A hearing in the case has been scheduled for Nov. 30. On Monday, 43-year-old Lawrence Reynolds of Cleveland, a convi...

CINCINNATI - A federal appeals court on Monday halted the execution of an inmate in the Midwestern state of Ohio three weeks after problems with a lethal injection attempt. A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled 2-1 to grant the request of 43-year-old Lawrence Reynolds Jr., who had been sentenced to die for strangling his 67-year-old neighbor during a 1994 robbery. On Sept. 15, Gov. Ted Strickland stopped the lethal injection of Romell Broom after state executioners struggled for two hours to find a usable vein. Broom's execution is on hold while his attorneys prepare for a Nov. 30 federal court hearing. They argue that an unprecedented second execution attempt on Broom violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Judge Boyce Martin said Broom's case raises questions about Ohio's lethal injection procedures, including the competence of the state's execution team. "Given the important constitutional and human...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. Ted Strickland on Monday delayed the state's next two executions to allow a full review of lethal injection procedures, the latest in a series of unprecedented capital punishment developments in Ohio. Strickland ordered the reprieves for condemned inmates Lawrence Reynolds, scheduled to be executed Thursday, and Darryl Durr, scheduled to die next month, in the midst of a legal battle over Reynolds' execution. Reynolds' execution was delayed until March 9, Durr's until April 20. Strickland said the Ohio corrections department needed more time to finish updating protocols for dealing with long delays in finding suitable veins on inmates. The surprise announcement Monday came as the U.S. Supreme Court weighed whether to allow Reynolds' execution, for strangling his 67-year-old neighbor in 1994, to proceed. Earlier Monday, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had delayed the execution, citing problems with the planned Sept. 15 e...

Things have calmed down now with the Broom execution on hold for a few months. The TRO has been extended, at Broom's request and without objection, until November 30. Even if it's lifted that day, Ohio will be unable to go forward with the execution until the Ohio Supreme Court sets a new execution date. This gives us time to step back and gain some perspective. But it also raises serious questions for Lawrence Reynolds and Darryl Durr. Reynolds and Durr are the guys Ohio plans to kill next. The aggravated murder of Reynolds is scheduled for October 8. Durr's murder is to occur November 10.* That means, if the state has its way with them, that both will be dead before there's a ruling from Judge Frost. So what? Some would ask. At Crime and Consequences, Kent Scheidegger calls the"pinpricks" Broom experienced a "preposterous basis for further delay." He'd wondered earlier if the arguments against trying again to kill Broom was "the worst ar...

Survivor of Ohio's latest botched execution reveals breathtaking incompetence Romell Broom achieved a macabre notoriety this past month when he became the first man to survive his date with the needle. Not just in Ohio, but anywhere. The convicted rapist and murderer endured more than two hours of poking and stabbing before his date with death was called off indefinitely. His executioners could not find a vein to plant intravenous shunts, and they prodded him with needles at least 18 times to no avail, says Tim Sweeney, his lawyer. The eyes of the world are on Ohio now, and many are questioning our death-penalty apparatus. It was the first time an execution was called off while in progress, but it wasn't the first time our executioners unintentionally prolonged their work. In 2006, inmate Joseph Clark uttered "It don't work" as his handlers bungled an IV attachment and delayed his doom for more than an hour. In 2007, techs took close to two hours to find a vei...

A death row inmate has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to delay his upcoming execution in light of problems with the state's last scheduled lethal injection. Attorneys for Lawrence Reynolds filed a motion with the state's highest court today, days after a similar filing with a federal appeals court. Reynolds execution scheduled for Oct. 8 would be the 1st since the state's unsuccessful attempt at putting Romell Broom to death on Sept. 15. The lethal injection procedure was halted by Gov. Ted Strickland after executioners struggled for 2 hours to find a usable vein. Broom's execution has been delayed until at least Nov. 30. Reynolds' lawyers argue that Ohios lethal injection system should be investigated before he goes to the death chamber. Source: Cleveland.com, Sept. 30, 2009

The ghosts of problem executions past combined with an aborted attempt two weeks ago are haunting state prison officials as death-penalty foes argue that Ohio's lethal injections should be halted, at least temporarily. The Ohio public defender, in motions filed yesterday in state and federal courts, contends that the botched attempt to execute Romell Broom on Sept. 15 - coupled with problems in two previous executions - warrants postponing the scheduled lethal injection of Lawrence Reynolds next week. "Until a thorough and proper review of Ohio's lethal injection protocol is conducted, executions should not be allowed to proceed in the state," Kelly L. Schneider, head of the public defender's death-penalty section, told The Dispatch yesterday. "It seems like the logical thing to do is to take a step back and see what's going on here." The prison execution team "demonstrated that it is wholly incapable of administering Ohio's lethal inj...