Defendants want executioners to testify in lethal injection case

2 capital murder defendants argued through court documents that people
who
carry out executions in Ohio should be called as witnesses in a case
challenging the state's lethal injection method.

Ronald McCloud, 28, and Ruben Rivera, 38, two defendants who could face
the death penalty if convicted, have argued that Ohio's method of
lethal
injection violates state law that requires a quick and painless death.
In
a brief submitted yesterday to Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James
Burge, McCloud and Rivera asked to reopen the evidence in the case so
they
could call the medical personnel on the Ohio execution team as
witnesses.

Jeffrey Gamso, head of the Ohio Civil Liberties Union who is
representing
McCloud and Rivera, wrote that they want to ask the execution team
members
how they do their jobs and what they do when they come across problems
with executions. Burge has given the state 2 weeks to respond to the
arguments of McCloud and Rivera.

Of the 3 members of the execution team, 2 of those people are EMTs and
the
3rd has certification with the American Society if Clinical
Pathologists,
Gamso wrote in the brief yesterday.

2 expert witnesses, both anesthesiologists, one for the state and one
on
behalf of McCloud and Rivera testified in a hearing in April. Dr. Mark
Heath, on behalf of McCloud and Rivera, testified that Ohio's lethal
injection protocol is not appropriate for dogs or cats, let alone
humans.
Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an expert witness for the state testified that
Ohio's
execution procedure is humane and includes enough anesthetic to knock
out
an average inmate for 2 hours.

Gamso pointed out what he claims are two botched executions in the past
3
years.

Joe Clark, who was executed on May 2, 2006, took 88 minutes from the
entry
of the medical team until he was pronounced dead. Clark sat up during
the
execution, complained that it was not working and asked for something
to
kill him by mouth.

On May 24, 2007, the execution of Christopher Newton took 110 minutes,
Gamso wrote. Newspaper reports showed that Newton turned blue as his
chest
heaved after the execution team finally injected the lethal chemicals.

2 anesthesiologists who testified in the case agreed that a person
properly anesthetized with sodium thiopental, the 1st of 3 drugs used
in
the process, or another barbiturate, will not feel pain. But is
something
goes wrong, Gamso wrote, the other 2 drugs, pancuronium bromide and
potassium chloride, could cause and excruciating death.

Burge has said he expects to rule on the case before Rivera goes on
trial
for the murder of Manual Garcia, 48, in August 2004 in Lorain for a
drug
related robbery. McCloud, who is accused of raping and killing Janet
Barnhard, 57, at the Living Water Christian Fellowship Church in June
2005, is also awaiting trial.

(source: The Morning Journal)