Ohio Halts Execution of Physically Debilitated Prisoner After It Cannot Find Vein for Intravenous Line

Having failed to find a suit­able vein in which to set an intra­venous exe­cu­tion line, Ohio called off the sched­uled November 15 exe­cu­tion of grave­ly ill and phys­i­cal­ly debil­i­tat­ed death-row pris­on­er, Alva Campbell (pic­tured).

After exe­cu­tion per­son­nel failed in four attempts to find a vein for the IV line, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Gary Mohr stopped the exe­cu­tion and Governor John Kasich grant­ed Campbell a tem­po­rary reprieve. Kasich resched­uled Campbell’s exe­cu­tion for June 5, 2019. 

The exe­cu­tion was delayed for near­ly an hour as exe­cu­tion­ers assessed Campbell’s veins, and then wit­ness­es watched for anoth­er half hour as prison per­son­nel used an ultra­vi­o­let light to probe Campbell’s arm for a vein, stick­ing him twice in the right arm, once in the left arm, and once in the left leg. Columbus Dispatch reporter Marty Schladen, a media wit­ness to the exe­cu­tion, report­ed that, when he was stuck in the leg, ​“Campbell threw his head back and appeared to cry out in pain.” 

Campbell’s lead lawyer, assis­tant fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er David Stebbins said, ​“We had warned them for months that they were going to have this prob­lem.” In court doc­u­ments seek­ing to stay his exe­cu­tion, Campbell’s lawyers unsuc­cess­ful­ly argued that a com­bi­na­tion of severe med­ical ail­ments and phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties made it inap­pro­pri­ate for him to be exe­cut­ed. These afflic­tions include lung can­cer, chron­ic obstruc­tive pul­monary dis­ease, res­pi­ra­to­ry fail­ure, prostate can­cer, and severe pneu­mo­nia, and Campbell relies on a colosto­my bag that hangs out­side his body, needs oxy­gen treat­ments four times a day, and requires a walk­er for even limited mobility. 

Following the reprieve, Stebbins ques­tioned whether the state would be able to suc­cess­ful­ly exe­cute Campbell. ​“He’s 69 years old and has all kinds of ill­ness­es and his veins are a mess,” he said. ​“They’re just not going to get any better.” 

“This type of state-spon­sored tor­ture is not accept­able,” said ACLU of Ohio senior pol­i­cy direc­tor Mike Brickner. ​“This marks the fifth botched exe­cu­tion for Ohio in recent years, and the sec­ond time the state could not com­plete an exe­cu­tion. This is not jus­tice,” he said, ​“and this is not humane.”

In the past eleven years, Ohio has also botched the exe­cu­tions of Joseph L. Clark, Christopher Newton, Romell Broom, and Dennis McGuire.

In a video post­ed on the web­site of the Columbus Dispatch, reporter Marty Schladen, who was sched­uled to wit­ness the exe­cu­tion, said ​“I don’t think any­thing that hap­pened today would make any­body san­guine about the death penal­ty in Ohio right now.”