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With 2 in 3 Months, Ohio Executions Could be Back on Track
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio could be on track to resume executions at a regular pace after putting two condemned killers to death in the past three months.
The state executed child killer Ronald Phillips in July and double killer Gary Otte on Wednesday in the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Witnesses said Phillips did not appear to be distressed. Otte’s chest rose and fell several times over two minutes in a fashion similar to some executions in the past.
Otte’s lawyers believe he suffered a phenomenon known as air hunger and plan to continue their challenge of Ohio’s use of a sedative called midazolam.
Ohio went more than three years without an execution as it struggled to find a source for drugs used in lethal injection.