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Ohio GOP lawmakers: Execution process can be fixed

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By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, The Associated Press Updated 6:31 PM Wednesday, November 4, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two Republican lawmakers advising Ohio's Democratic governor on changes to the state's lethal injection process say it shouldn't be hard to fix the system.

The lawmakers, both proponents of capital punishment, are among state legislators helping Gov. Ted Strickland find medical personnel willing to help the state improve its injection process. Both say they got involved to make sure recent problems with lethal injection don't lead to attempts to eliminate the death penalty.

"We want to make sure our well-established judicial rights to administer capital punishment in appropriate cases are preserved and will not be defeated by new and ingenious means of dodging the executioner," Sen. Bill Seitz, of Cincinnati, said Wednesday.

Seitz said he's talked to lawyers and doctors but has yet to find anyone willing to come forward. But his conversations have suggested changes Ohio could adopt, ranging from using a retired doctor during executions to requiring that inmates drink enough liquids before an execution to keep their veins healthy.

Sen. Tim Grendell has contacted current and retired doctors looking for advice.

"I find it difficult to believe there isn't a functional solution to this problem," said Grendell, of Chesterland.

The death penalty is temporarily on hold in Ohio while the state develops the new policies. The update follows a botched execution on Sept. 15 that was halted when executioners couldn't find a suitable vein on inmate Romell Broom.

Broom, who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 14-year old girl in 1984, complained in an affidavit following the execution attempt that his executioners painfully hit muscle and bone during as many as 18 attempts to reach a vein.

The state said in a court filing last month it was having a hard time finding medical personnel willing to consult about injection because of professional and ethical rules. The rules — which generally prohibit doctors, nurses and others from involvement in capital punishment — are deterring such personnel from speaking publicly or privately about alternatives to the state's lethal injection process.

Among the changes the state is considering: injecting lethal drugs into inmates' bone marrow or muscles as an alternative to — or a backup for — the traditional intravenous execution procedure.

Also Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court set two new execution dates.

The court set a May 13 execution date for Michael Beuke, 47, convicted of the 1983 murder of Robert Craig, a man he met while hitchhiking on Interstate 275 in southwest Ohio.

The court also set a June 10 execution date for Richard Nields, 59, sentenced to die for the 1997 death of his girlfriend, 59-year-old Patricia Newsome, at their home in Finneytown in southwest Ohio.

Ohio has put 32 people to death since 1999, when executions resumed in the state.

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November 04, 2009 11:27 PM EST

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