FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Columbus) - At 10 a.m. today, the State of Ohio executed John Glenn Roe. Roe is the second Ohio inmate executed since questions were raised over the constitutionality of the drugs used in Ohio’s lethal injection protocol.

Ohio’s lethal injection protocol includes a paralyzing agent, pancuronium bromide, that could leave the inmate conscious before death, but cast a chemical veil over the excruciatingly painful effects of death by suffocation and heart attack. Veterinarians forbid using the same types of drugs for euthanizing pets, in order to avoid inflicting pain on the animals.

Judges in some states have granted stays of execution in response to similar lawsuits.

“We wouldn't put a stray dog to sleep with the drugs we use to execute human beings,” argued State Public Defender David Bodiker. “Apparently, veterinarians worry more about torturing pets than Ohio’s executioners worry about torturing human beings.”

Controversy over Roe’s execution also surrounds questionable voting in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

In their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, Roe’s lawyers argued that Roe’s “constitutional rights to due process were violated when an invalid group of appellate judges manipulated en banc rules to trump a valid majority’s decisions to stay his execution and hear his appeal….”

Judge Eric Clay, in his dissenting opinion to the Sixth Circuit’s Jan. 30 ruling, argued against the voting methods employed by the Court:

… the decision of this Court to conduct another vote on whether to hear Roe’s appeal en banc, combined with Judge Cook’s participation in that vote, has created the perception that certain members of this Court have manipulated the process to avoid, what is in their view, the unfavorable result of the January 13th poll. This outcome unfortunately conveys the impression of a result-oriented process rather than an orderly process which seeks to preserve the appearance and reality of due process.

Email: amy.borror@opd.state.oh.us