On March 8, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland post­poned the exe­cu­tion of Lawrence Reynolds, who was found uncon­scious in his death row cell hours before he was to be dri­ven to the exe­cu­tion facil­i­ty. Reynolds, who was sen­tenced to die for a mur­der in 1994, appar­ent­ly took an over­dose of pills despite being under a 72-hour watch that includes fre­quent mon­i­tor­ing by prison guards. He was found uncon­scious in his cell around 11:30 pm, and was rushed to a hos­pi­tal in Youngstown, Ohio. Ohio State Penitentiary spokes­woman Julie Walburn con­firmed that Reynolds was alone in his death row cell. The state has resched­uled his exe­cu­tion for March 16. This is the sec­ond time the state has post­poned Reynolds’ lethal injec­tion. He was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in October 2009, but Gov. Strickland delayed exe­cu­tions so the state could review its lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure fol­low­ing the failed attempt to exe­cute Romell Broom. Since then, Ohio became the first state to adopt a one-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col, a method that Reynolds has challenged.

(“Governor delays exe­cu­tion of inmate found uncon­scious,” Associated Press, March 8, 2010). See also Lethal Injection and Time on Death Row.

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