Ohio delays executions while appealing court decision over drug protocol

Execution dates for nine death row inmates have been delayed while the state continues its appeal of a court decision blocking use of its lethal injection protocol.

Nine executions were pushed back in a revised schedule released Monday by Gov. John Kasich. The next execution, of Akron child killer Ronald Phillips, was rescheduled for July 26.

On Jan. 26, a federal magistrate judge found the state’s three-drug injection cocktail to be unconstitutional and stayed the next three executions. A three-judge panel for the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court and kept the stay in place.

The full Cincinnati appeals court last week agreed to rehear the state’s appeal. A hearing has been set for June 14.

The state had planed to execute Phillips and Gary Otte, who killed two people to death in back-to-back robberies in Parma, before that date. Otte’s execution was moved to Sept. 13.

The state has scheduled 33 executions through March 2021.

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