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Execution Date Set Despite Not Having Lethal Drugs
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The Ohio Supreme Court has set an execution date for a condemned killer over the objection of two justices who question establishing dates when the state doesn’t have any lethal drugs.
The court ruled 5-2 on Friday to schedule James Frazier’s execution for Oct. 17, 2019. He is set to die for the 2004 slaying of a woman in a Toledo apartment building where both lived.
The decision means Ohio now has 25 death row inmates with firm execution dates beginning early next year at a time when the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction still can’t find drugs to put them to death with.
Justice Paul Pfeifer says in a dissenting opinion that it serves “no rational purpose” to continue to set execution dates without drugs on hand.