COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – As Ohio lawmakers rush to pass a bill supporters say is needed to restart executions in the state, a prosecutor says the chances of the next scheduled execution happening are “nil.”
The legislation up for a final Senate vote Thursday shields the names of companies that provide lethal injection drugs to Ohio, a provision that supporters say is necessary to obtain supplies of the drugs.
Lawmakers want the measure in place at least a month before the Feb. 11 execution of Ron Phillips, sentenced to die for raping and killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in Akron in 1993. Any changes to the state execution policies must be filed a month before executions.
The chance of “an execution going forward on February 11, 2015 is nil,” Richard Kasay, assistant Summit County prosecutor, said in a Dec. 1 court filing.
Kasay wants more time to respond to arguments that lawyers filed last month to overturn Phillips’ death sentence, a filing he called “voluminous.”