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Attorney General: Ohio refining execution policies

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By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, The Associated Press Updated 12:16 PM Thursday, January 26, 2012

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state is once again refining its execution policies following a judge's ruling that criticized minor variations to Ohio's procedures, Attorney General Mike DeWine said Thursday.

The announcement comes as another execution was temporarily placed on hold while the debate over these variations works its way through the federal courts.

"We believe we have a constitutional system," DeWine told The Associated Press Thursday. "We want to make it a better procedure pursuant to the federal judge's order."

U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost stopped an execution last month because he said Ohio had broken its promise to follow its execution rules to the letter. He criticized the state for not properly recording a death row inmate's medical chart before an execution last fall and for not documenting the use of the lethal injection drug according to the written policies.

Frost said the issue was not necessarily small changes to Ohio's policies, but whether those changes are made in the proper way.

"This is not to say that Ohio must perform all executions in a precisely identical manner," Frost said in a Jan. 11 ruling. "All that is required is that Ohio apply the same overarching rules in every execution, with these rules allowing for necessary and approved non-core deviations."

Frost has also said his rulings aren't a commentary on the constitutionality of Ohio's execution procedures.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction could not immediately say Thursday what policies were being refined.

DeWine said that even if the new procedures pass muster with Frost, there are no plans to withdraw an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. DeWine said there are large constitutional issues that the high court must decide.

Frost on Thursday, without objection from the state, delayed the execution of a man who claims innocence in the 1990 arson death of his 3-year-old son.

The one-page ruling by Frost did not address the innocence claim but instead dealt with the issue of variations to the execution policies.

Michael Webb, who was scheduled to die Feb. 22, has argued that a leading arson expert can prove the 1990 fire in southwest Ohio could have been set anywhere in the house, and not just near a closet or bathroom.

Webb, 65, says that fact backs up his argument that someone else did it. He has asked the Ohio Parole Board for mercy, and the board will make its recommendation next week to Gov. John Kasich, who has the final say.

Attorneys for Webb say his situation is the same as another inmate whose execution is on hold over challenges to Ohio's lethal injection process.

Frost this month delayed the execution of Charles Lorraine of Warren, saying the state had failed to keep its promise of strictly following its execution policies. Frost was critical of deviations in an execution in November in which the inmate's medical chart wasn't properly checked and the documentation of the lethal drugs wasn't done according to the policies.

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Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached at http://twitter.com/awhcolumbus .

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January 26, 2012 05:10 PM EST

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