Man to be executed with single sedative
Source: Agencies |
March 11, 2011, Friday
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A MAN convicted of killing a store owner from South Korea was to be put to death yesterday in Ohio with the United State's first use of the surgical sedative pentobarbital as a stand-alone execution drug.
The execution of death row inmate Johnnie Baston also would mark a move to make the process more public and give inmates speedier access to attorneys in case something goes wrong when needles are being inserted into them.
Baston, 37, was sentenced to die for killing Chong-Hoon Mah during a 1994 robbery. The 53-year-old victim's relatives oppose the death penalty and the execution.
The victim was a journalist in South Korea before moving to Ohio and opening two retail stores in Toledo. He started life over as a manual laborer before opening his stores and rarely took a day off, his brother, Chonggi Mah, testified at the end of Baston's 1995 trial.
Baston had previously given differing accounts of the crime and has suggested he was present but didn't do the killing. But his attorneys say they don't dispute his conviction.
There was some last-minute confusion over allegations that Baston confessed during a lie-detector test arranged by his family. "Inmate Baston did confess to the murder," Ohio prisons spokesman Carlo LoParo said yesterday.
Baston's brother refuted the confession in an unusual pre-execution appearance before reporters about 40 minutes before the execution.
Richard Baston, of the Fort Worth-Dallas, Texas, area, said the test last Friday on death row in Youngstown never actually got started and there was a miscommunication that led to word of a confession.
"My brother did not confess to any crime whatsoever of shooting Mr Mah," Richard Baston said yesterday morning. He said his brother has long said he was present but did not shoot Mah; another man did.
LoParo said the prison system is standing by its confirmation of the confession.
Ohio has had problems inserting needles in a handful of cases, including the botched 2009 execution of Romell Broom, who was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of a teenage girl abducted in Cleveland as she walked home from a football game.
The governor stopped the failed needle insertion procedure after two hours. Broom complained that he was stuck with needles at least 18 times and suffered intense pain.
He has sued, arguing a second attempt to put him to death would be unconstitutionally cruel.
Now, an attorney concerned about how an execution is going could use a death house phone to contact a fellow lawyer in a nearby building with access to a computer and cellphone to contact courts or other officials about the problem, LoParo said.
Baston's brothers and his public defender, Rob Lowe, were scheduled to witness his execution.
The execution of death row inmate Johnnie Baston also would mark a move to make the process more public and give inmates speedier access to attorneys in case something goes wrong when needles are being inserted into them.
Baston, 37, was sentenced to die for killing Chong-Hoon Mah during a 1994 robbery. The 53-year-old victim's relatives oppose the death penalty and the execution.
The victim was a journalist in South Korea before moving to Ohio and opening two retail stores in Toledo. He started life over as a manual laborer before opening his stores and rarely took a day off, his brother, Chonggi Mah, testified at the end of Baston's 1995 trial.
Baston had previously given differing accounts of the crime and has suggested he was present but didn't do the killing. But his attorneys say they don't dispute his conviction.
There was some last-minute confusion over allegations that Baston confessed during a lie-detector test arranged by his family. "Inmate Baston did confess to the murder," Ohio prisons spokesman Carlo LoParo said yesterday.
Baston's brother refuted the confession in an unusual pre-execution appearance before reporters about 40 minutes before the execution.
Richard Baston, of the Fort Worth-Dallas, Texas, area, said the test last Friday on death row in Youngstown never actually got started and there was a miscommunication that led to word of a confession.
"My brother did not confess to any crime whatsoever of shooting Mr Mah," Richard Baston said yesterday morning. He said his brother has long said he was present but did not shoot Mah; another man did.
LoParo said the prison system is standing by its confirmation of the confession.
Ohio has had problems inserting needles in a handful of cases, including the botched 2009 execution of Romell Broom, who was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of a teenage girl abducted in Cleveland as she walked home from a football game.
The governor stopped the failed needle insertion procedure after two hours. Broom complained that he was stuck with needles at least 18 times and suffered intense pain.
He has sued, arguing a second attempt to put him to death would be unconstitutionally cruel.
Now, an attorney concerned about how an execution is going could use a death house phone to contact a fellow lawyer in a nearby building with access to a computer and cellphone to contact courts or other officials about the problem, LoParo said.
Baston's brothers and his public defender, Rob Lowe, were scheduled to witness his execution.
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