Ohio inmate executed after SCOTUS denies stay; ABA had expressed concern
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After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, Ohio inmate Ronald Phillips was executed Wednesday morning for raping and murdering his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in 1993.
Phillips’ execution was the first in Ohio since January 2014 when an inmate who was administered a two-drug cocktail gasped for air and made snorting sounds during the lethal injection procedure. Ohio used three drugs in Phillips’ execution, and no complications were reported in stories by the Associated Press, Gatehouse Ohio Media, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
ABA President Linda A. Klein had issued a statement on Tuesday saying the association was “deeply concerned” about Ohio’s plan to resume executions because the state had not implemented important reforms to improve the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Court had refused stays late Tuesday in Phillips’ case and that of two other Ohio inmates. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent (PDF) that was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The issue, Sotomayor said, was whether the inmates were entitled to a trial on their claims that Ohio’s execution protocol was cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge had ruled a trial was warranted, but the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had reversed in an en banc ruling.
Sotomayor said the 6th Circuit had failed to give due deference to the federal judge’s findings.
“I dissent again from this court’s failure to step in when significant issues of life and death are present,” she wrote.
Phillips’ lawyers, Timothy Sweeney and Lisa Lagos, issued a statement saying Phillips had changed since committing the “unspeakable crimes” committed when he was 19. He was remorseful and compassionate and had earned his certification to become a minister, the lawyers said.
“Ron’s case suggests we should thoughtfully reconsider our laws that permit the harshest punishment for those who committed their crimes as teenagers, especially the irrevocable punishment of death,” the statement said.