Decision clears way for Biros execution

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

COLUMBUS — Ohio’s execution process is a flawed system that raises troubling concerns, but those problems do not rise to the level of a constitutional violation, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost paves the way for the possible execution of a Trumbull County man who mutilated his victim and left her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In a 159-page ruling, Judge Frost repeatedly said there are problems with the way Ohio executes inmates, both with written protocols and the training the state provides the execution team.

Judge Frost also said it’s possible that further evidence could prove the process constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

But Judge Frost said condemned killer Kenneth Biros, formerly of Brookfield, Ohio, has failed for now to demonstrate that he would experience severe pain under the system.

With the decision, Judge Frost found that Ohio’s system meets the standards for a constitutional process laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago.

“Ohio’s method of execution by lethal injection is a system replete with inherent flaws that raise profound concerns and present unnecessary risks,” Judge Frost wrote, “even if it appears unlikely that Biros will demonstrate that those risks rise to the level of violating the United States Constitution.”

Biros plans an appeal, said his Cleveland attorney, John Parker. The Ohio Attorney General’s office declined to comment.

Judge Frost’s decision lifts the delay he issued in December 2006. The state twice appealed that decision, and Biros came within a few hours of execution in March 2007 before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the delay.

Biros, 50, killed and dismembered 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near his home in 1991 after he offered to drive her home from a bar in Masury, Ohio. He spread her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and some of them still have not been found.

During a five-day trial last month, members of Ohio’s execution team explained the lethal injection system. They testified anonymously and were shielded by a drawing board.

Judge Frost said the state’s system for putting people to death has changed since the May 2006 execution of Joseph Clark was delayed for more than an hour while execution team members struggled to find a vein.

“Significantly, participants in the State’s execution process also admirably adopted unwritten procedures, most accurately characterized as custom and practice,” Judge Frost said.

But the judge chastised Ohio officials for not doing more to train its executioners.