Governor-elect Strickland indicates Biros execution will not got forward (due to time constraints) / expresses concern over use of lethal injection for Filiaggi, Newton

AP has this.  Youngstown Vindicator has this.  Warren Tribune-Chronicle here.  Columbus Dispatch here.

AP excerpt:
Gov.-elect Ted Strickland said Friday he will not have ample time to review the case of condemned killer Kenneth Biros before the scheduled execution date, signaling the likelihood that the first execution of his administration will be postponed.

"In talking with my legal counsel and with Gov. Bob Taft's legal counsel, they have told me there is no way that we can have time to do the kind of analysis dealing with that that Bob Taft does," Strickland told The Associated Press. "It takes him much longer than that amount of time that I would have."

The statement was met with unified wonder by those for and against the death penalty: Does this mean the new governor is reconsidering the death penalty?

...Strickland, who takes office Monday, would have 16 days to review Biros' case if his execution is carried out on its scheduled date of Jan. 23. Strickland said Taft's reviews have typically taken at least several months.

Judge Gregory L. Frost of the Southern District of Ohio in December granted a request to delay Biros' execution until a further order from the court, as part of an ongoing case challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection procedures. State attorneys have appealed the delay.

Strickland said that, even if a court allows Biros' execution to go forward, he won't be ready by that date. ...

..."If it does go forward, I'm going to make absolutely sure that I have sufficient time to do whatever is necessary to properly exercise that authority," he said.

Andrea Dean, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said Ohio's governor has two ways to delay an execution: granting a reprieve until a date the governor specifies or granting clemency.

Dispatch excerpt:
...Two more Ohio executions are scheduled for February, but Strickland said he hasn’t made any decisions on those cases.

Strickland, a Democrat who supports the death penalty, said he also has concerns about recent court rulings questioning whether executions by lethal injection — the method used in Ohio and most other states — are cruel and unusual punishment.

"I would hate for someone to be executed on a Wednesday and then on the following Thursday for the court to say that we had just employed an unconstitutional method of doing that," Strickland said.

The governor-elect said he has not reached any conclusions about whether he would consider delaying an execution on those grounds but would like more guidance from the courts.

Comments

[Ines and Joe Feil]

In reference to the Biros execution postponement, we feel that it is a mistake to postpone the execution of criminals, condemned to the death penalty. Such persons have committed crimes so hideous that it would be unimaginable to permit them ever to be freed again. Even life imprisonment leaves open the possibility that they might escape. The common good of the people can best be promoted by executing murderers, not by coddling them. We urge that the death penalty be imposed as intended in the law.
Ines and Joe Feil