Ohio killer awaits 1st US 1-drug lethal injection

[December 08, 2009]  LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Witnesses to the scheduled execution of a killer who scattered a woman's remains across two states could have an even more somber experience than those who watched previously when Ohio put nearly three dozen other inmates to death.

Inmate Kenneth Biros, if executed as planned Tuesday morning, would become the first person in the U.S. to die by lethal injection with a single drug, a process most death penalty experts agree will take longer than the old method. Biros' procedure would be the first lethal injection since the state's switch from using a three-drug combination.

If that method fails, a backup plan allows executioners to inject drugs directly into muscles instead of veins.

Ohio overhauled its procedure after the failed attempt at rapist Romell Broom's execution, which was halted by Gov. Ted Strickland in September. Executioners tried for two hours to find a usable vein for injection, hitting bone and muscle in as many as 18 needle sticks that Broom said were very painful.

Broom, 53, was sentenced to die for the rape and stabbing death of a 14-year-old girl. He has appealed the state's attempt to try to execute him again.

The state had two goals in changing its lethal-injection process. Switching to one drug was meant to end a 5-year-old lawsuit that claims the state's three-drug system was capable of causing severe pain. Injection experts and defense attorneys agree the single dose of thiopental sodium will not cause pain.

The backup procedure allowing muscle injection was created in case a situation like Broom's attempted execution happens again.

Other states are watching Ohio's change, but none has made a similar switch. Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia are among those saying they will keep the three-drug method.

Biros reached the holding area for death row inmates at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville on Monday morning. The small cell is about 15 feet from the chamber where inmates are put to death.

In the afternoon, he had a snack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. At night, he was to be served a meal of cheese pizza, onion rings, fried mushrooms, Doritos chips, French onion dip, blueberry ice cream, cherry pie and Dr Pepper soda.

It's the second trip to Lucasville for Biros, who spent more than 30 hours in the holding cell in March 2007 before the U.S. Supreme Court stopped his execution and allowed him to challenge the state's method at the time, involving three drugs. Biros, 51, was resting and appeared relaxed, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said.

Ohio inmates generally have taken about seven minutes to die after injection. That's part of a total process lasting about 30 minutes, from the time witnesses start watching the insertion of the intravenous needles until the warden announces the time of death.

In most cases, an inmate lies still after giving a final statement and following a slight heaving of the chest appears no different from someone who is sleeping.

Anesthesiologist Mark Dershwitz, who consulted with Ohio, estimated death could now come after 15 minutes.

Witnesses will be allowed to stay and watch for as long as it takes, Walburn said Monday.

Biros' attorney John Parker and two friends will witness on Biros' behalf. The mother, brother and sister of Biros' victim, 22-year-old Tami Engstrom, also will witness.

Biros killed Engstrom near Warren, in northeastern Ohio, in 1991 after offering to drive her home from a bar, then scattered her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania. He acknowledged killing her but said it was done during a drunken rage.

Trumbull County Sheriff Tom Altiere, allowed a witness spot under state law, will be the first sheriff to witness an execution since the state resumed putting people to death in 1999, Walburn said.

A federal judge earlier Monday refused to delay the execution, and Biros immediately appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The appeals court rejected his request for a stay Monday night, so Biros then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Biros argued that the state has failed to fix the problems that led to the unsuccessful execution attempt in September. He said the state still relies on unqualified executioners and lacks limits on how long they are allowed to try to find a vein.

District Judge Gregory Frost, in Columbus, said in his ruling that it appears unlikely that Biros can "demonstrate that those risks rise to the level of violating the United States Constitution."

The state opposes a delay and says Biros has not shown that its method presents a substantial risk that he would suffer severe pain.

In asking Frost for a stay, Biros had argued that the new execution method still left vein access issues unresolved, subjecting him to the risk of severe pain, and he had described the one-drug approach as "impermissible human experimentation." The judge called the arguments unpersuasive.

All 36 death penalty states use lethal injection, and 35 rely on the three-drug method. Nebraska, which recently adopted injection over electrocution, has proposed the three-drug method but hasn't finalized it.

[Associated Press; By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS]

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