Ohio Death Penalty Information

Filiaggi execution imminent / New scientific study raises additional concerns about execution drugs / Strickland denies last-minute reprieve:  Karen Kaplan has this article in the Los Angeles Times, entitled "Reliability of execution drugs is in question: The faulty administration of two of the three chemicals leaves some inmates suffocating and conscious, a report says."  Rob Stein has this article in the Washington Post, entitled "Drugs Used in Executions May Cause Paralysis, Pain for Conscious Inmates."  AP medical reporter Marilyn Marchionne has this report, entitled "Study: Lethal Injection Method Flawed."  Maya Bell has this coverage in the Orland Sentinel, entitled "Study: Lethal injection flawed: Inmates executed by this method may die in agony, says a research team who examined the drug cocktail."  Sheila Burke has this in the Nashville Tennessean, entitled "Study says lethal injection can be torture."  Reuters here. David Biello has this report in Scientific American, entitled "Bad Drugs: Lethal Injection Does Not Work as Designed."

• Alan Johnson has this article in the Columbus Dispatch, entitled "Lethal injection is excruciating, study says."

Excerpt:
A new medical study alleging that lethal injection can cause slow, painful death was timely but possibly terrifying news for condemned killer James J. Filiaggi.

As Filiaggi, 41, awaited his execution last night in a cell yards away from the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville, a medical review concluded that lethal injection could result in slow death, possibly by suffocation, while inmates are conscious but unable to move.

Barring last minute legal intervention, Filiaggi will be lethally injected at 10 a.m. today. He was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering his ex-wife, Lisa Huff Filiaggi, on Jan. 24, 1994. He chased her to a neighbor's house where he used 9 mm Luger pistol to fatally shoot her in the shoulder and head.

Gov. Ted Strickland, in what may have been Filiaggi's last chance to avoid execution, denied a reprieve last night. Filiaggi's attorneys asked for more time to pursue litigation challenging lethal injection.

He would become the first man executed in Ohio this year, as well as the first under Strickland's administration, and the 25th to die since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. Strickland rejected clemency for Filiaggi last week, which was the unanimous recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board.

The study was done by the Public Library of Science, an online medical journal. The organization includes heavy hitters from medicine and science, including Harold Varmus, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, a co-recipient of a Nobel prize, and president and chief executive officer of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

• Full report, entitled "Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?", in on the PLoS Medicine website here.
• PLoS Medicine editorial, entitled "Lethal Injection Is Not Humane," is here.
• Dr. Jonathon Groner, MD, has issued this press statement (1-page Word doc) in response to the new study.

US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to stay Filiaggi execution

The US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals this evening denied the request to stay the execution of James Filiaggi scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10 AM EDT. 

No information on further appeals that might be currently ongoing or which might be undertaken later this evening to stop the execution, but it should now be considered imminent.

Filiaggi stay of execution denied in US District Court

US District Court Judge Gregory Frost has denied James Filliagi's appeal for inclusion in the Cooey suit seeking an examination of Ohio's lethal-injection protocol, and also the stay of execution that might have accompanied a grant of inclusion.  The appeal was denied as "untimely," and made without having "exhausted administrative remedies."  Judge Frost issued his ruling "without prejudice," and an appeal is underway to the US 6th Circuit Ct. of Appeals.

Judge Frost's ruling is here (8-page pdf).

Ohio Supreme Court denies stay of execution for James Filiaggi

Without comment, the Ohio Supreme Court this morning denied a motion to stay James Filiaggi's execution scheduled for tomorrow morning.  The one-sentence ruling is here (pdf).  (Pfeifer and O'Donnell dissented, also without comment.)

• Motions before the US District Court for Southern Ohio - including for a stay of execution - are still pending.

Filiaggi:  Brad Dicken has this article in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, entitled "Acquaintances say goodbye - just in case."

Chronicle-Telegram excerpt:
James Filiaggi is saying goodbye to those he loves — in case his attorneys’ last-ditch efforts to halt his execution, set for Tuesday, fail.

Jackie Rentas, who visited Filiaggi on Sunday at Mansfield Correctional Institution, said she and others who saw him don’t have much hope that a federal judge or the Ohio Supreme Court will spare the 41-year-old Elyrian, who was sentenced to die for the 1994 shooting death of his ex-wife, Lisa Filiaggi.

“I really don’t think there’s a chance,” she said.

Rentas said she was among many friends and family who bid farewell to Filiaggi before his transfer today to the Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Once there, he will have the opportunity to have another round of visits with loved ones. ...

Filiaggi:  Brad Dicken has this article in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, entitled "State opposes Filiaggi request.

Filiaggi coverage:  Matt Suman has this article in the Lorain Morning Journal, entitled "Filiaggi fights to live."  Reginald Fields has this article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, entitled "Killer now seeks to stop execution."  Brad Dicken has this article in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, entitled "Filiaggi seeks to halt his execution."  Alan Johnson has this article in the Columbus Dispatch, entitled "Prisoner challenges lethal injection."  AP has  this coverage, entitled "Death-row 'volunteer' reconsiders."

Chronicle Telegram excerpt:
...Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the prison system will move forward with the execution process until told to stop.

Ohio Supreme Court spokesman Chris Davey said the court is considering Filiaggi’s request for an emergency stay of execution.

Meanwhile, the federal court is expected to rule Monday whether Filiaggi should be allowed to join the 2004 lawsuit filed by death row inmate Richard Cooey, who was sentenced to death for the 1986 rape and murder of two women, including one from North Ridgeville.

Deputy First Attorney General Brian Laliberte said Friday that the federal court will consider arguments from both sides that must be filed over the weekend. He said if Filiaggi is granted a reprieve by the U.S. District Court, the state will appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. If it loses there, it will appeal again to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Filiaggi’s attorneys did not return calls seeking comment Friday, but Laliberte said he assumes they will similarly appeal if the decision doesn’t go their way. He said he didn’t know if that complicated legal process can be completed by the scheduled 10 a.m. execution time on Tuesday.

“If past experience teaches us anything, it’s that a delay on Tuesday could happen,” he said.

Kenneth Lieux, one of Filiaggi’s trial attorneys, expressed relief that his former client had renewed his efforts to avoid execution. Lieux said the death penalty has no place in a civilized society.

“The eye-for-an-eye stuff doesn’t serve any societal purpose,” he said. ...

NOTE:  Tuesday's scheduled execution date for James Filiaggi should still be considered a serious date.

Some Filiaggi information:  A ruling on James Filiaggi's motion to be included in the federal lawsuit challenging Ohio's lethal-injection protocol is not expected until Monday (Ohio AG has until Saturday night to file its brief in opposition to the motion; attorneys for Filiaggi will then have until Sunday night to respond).  No information as to when a ruling might come from the Ohio Supreme Court on the motion presently before it for a stay of execution.

Filiaggi:  Andrew Welsh-Huggins has this latest  AP report, entitled "Volunteer reconsiders execution, asks to join injection lawsuit.

Filiagi:  Reginald Fields has this article on the Cleveland Plain Dealer website, entitled "Filiaggi now wants to live."  Brad Dicken has this coverage for the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, entitled "Filiaggi asks for stay of execution."  Andrew Welsh-Huggins has this AP report, entitled "Volunteer reconsiders execution, asks to join injection lawsuit."

Plain Dealer excerpt:

Lorain County's James Filiaggi has been resolute in his quest to die for killing his ex-wife 13 years ago, so much so that he earlier instructed his attorneys not to attempt to have his death sentence overturned.

But just four days before his April 24 scheduled execution, death row inmate Filiaggi apparently is having second thoughts.

His attorneys today asked the Ohio Supreme Court to grant him an emergency stay of the execution so that he may join a lawsuit brought by another death row inmate challenging the state's lethal injection procedures.

"After a period of indecision, Mr. Filiaggi determined on April 19, 2007 that he wished to participate in the case challenging Ohio's lethal injection procedures and protocols as violative of the Eighth and 14th amendments of the United States Constitution," a court filing reads

AP excerpt:
...If the injection lawsuit is successful, and Filiaggi is denied a delay, "his execution will have been unconstitutional," his attorney, ACLU lawyer Jeffrey Gamso, said in Friday's state Supreme Court filing. "And there will, of course, be no remedy.". ...