CLEVELAND, Dec 20: A federal judge ordered a stay of three scheduled executions in Ohio pending the resolution of a lawsuit brought by dozens of death row inmates that challenges the state’s secrecy around where it procures execution drugs. State killings in Ohio were set to resume in January 2017 after a three-year pause due to prison officials facing difficulties obtaining the drugs needed to perform lethal injections. US Magistrate Judge Michael Merz issued the 20-page ruling yesterday, staying the upcoming executions of inmates Ronald Phillips, Raymond Tibbetts, and Gary Otte. Merz wrote his order would be vacated once a ruling was made by the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals in a separate case brought by more than 60 inmates that argues Ohio keeping secret the source of the execution drugs it aims to use is unconstitutional. In that case, titled Fears v Kasich, a judge entered a protective order effectively blocking the inmates from discovering where Ohio obtained its execution drugs amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs from large pharmaceutical companies. “Absent a stay, Phillips, Tibbetts, and Otte will be executed without being able to obtain the information which may be useful to them and may be permitted by the impending decision in Fears v. Kasich. That constitutes irreparable harm,” Merz wrote in the order. Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio’s Attorney General, said by phone, “We are currently reviewing that ruling from Magistrate Merz to determine whether or not we’ll appeal.” In January 2014, Ohio became the first state to use a combination of the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone when it executed Dennis McGuire for the 1993 rape and murder of a pregnant woman. McGuire’s execution, witnessed by his adult children and reporters, took 25 minutes. Witnesses said he gasped and convulsed for 15 minutes. The Fears v Kasich case also argued against the suitability of midazolam due to its involvement in botched executions. Ohio’s newly announced three-drug protocol includes midazolam and was scheduled to be used in the executions of Phillips in January, Tibbetts in February and Otte in March 2017. (AGENCIES)
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