30 January 2012 :

2nd execution put off in fight over lethal injection protocol. Without objection from Attorney General Mike DeWine yesterday, U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost halted the execution scheduled for Feb. 22 of Michael Webb. Frost also allowed Webb to join other death-penalty defendants in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s lethal-injection protocol. “We felt we had no choice,” DeWine said. “We’re not going to carry out another execution without it being perfect.” DeWine said the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has made “great progress” in refining lethal-injection procedures, “but we’re not quite done with that.” The attorney general participated in a conference call on Wednesday with Frost and other parties in the case. Frost’s ruling will result in a potentially lengthy reprieve for Webb, 63, who was sentenced to death for setting fire to the family home on Nov. 21, 1990, causing the death of his son, Mikey, 3 1/2. If Webb’s execution is reordered, the Ohio Supreme Court would have to set a new death date. Executions are now scheduled through January 2014. At the same time, DeWine said, the state will continue its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of Frost’s decision blocking the Jan. 18 execution of Charles Lorraine. Frost issued a scathing decision this month that criticized the state for failing to follow its own procedures in the Nov. 15 execution of Reginald Brooks at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. Like Webb, Lorraine would have to have a new execution date set — potentially two years down the road.