Cordray to file execution appeal

DOWNTOWN TOLEDO - Ohio could begin executing inmates again as early as December if Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray gets his way.

There is a stay on all executions while the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections reviews its lethal injection process.

But Ohio AG Cordray said Friday afternoon during an event at the Toledo Bar Association he's filing an appeal and believes executions will resume by the end of the year.

Mr. Cordray is filing an appeal with the U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to overturn a ruling earlier in October that temporarily halted Ohio's death row executions.

The federal appellate panel delayed the execution of Lawrence Reynolds because of the state's failure to have a contingency plan in place should a vein collapse, as it did with Romell Broom in September, and with Toledoan Joseph Clark back in 2006.

"We think the administration should have freedom of the road to resume executions once they review protocol and became satisfied with the method of execution in the state," Mr. Cordray said.

He added if Ohio wins its appeal, the next execution could be Dec. 8 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

AG Cordray said he doesn't believe the recent problems with Ohio executions will end the death penalty. He believes lethal injection will continue to be the method of execution and the process will not vary much from the current three drug cocktail currently administered.