By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OHIO, United States – Kenneth Biros, a convicted murderer from Ohio, was executed today. Ohio prison officials used only one drug to perform the lethal injection. Normally a three drug cocktail is used to execute those who are condemned to death. It was the first time in the United States that a state has administered the death penalty using only one drug.

Biros was convicted of murdering Tami Engstrom in 1991. After murdering Engstrom, Biros spread her body parts around the Ohio and Pennsylvania area. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.  Biros’ death sentence was supposed to be administered in 2007. However, the U.S. Supreme Court delayed his execution to allow him to appeal the use of Ohio’s death penalty procedure. That procedure included injecting three different drugs into the prisoner. He argued that the three drug procedure caused extreme pain which violated the Eighth Amendment. Since Biros’ challenge, Ohio has reformed its death penalty procedure. 

Under Ohio’s new death penalty procedure, one drug is administered to the inmate instead of three. That drug, sodium thiopental, is the same drug that is used to euthanize animals. The new procedure is supposed to be less painful than the previous procedure. Both defense attorneys and injection experts agreed that the new procedure would not cause pain. However, there were concerns that the new procedure would take longer than the three drug procedure. 

Approximately ten minutes after Biros was injected with the drug, he passed away. Prison officials stated that they had two other drugs on standby in case the new procedure did not work. It was the first time that a state has used one drug to administer an execution. Before injecting the drug, prison officials struggled to find a vein in which to inject the drug. It took the officials thirty minutes to find a usable vein. 

Before the execution, Biros argued that his execution should be stayed on many different grounds. First, he argued that Ohio has not fixed its death penalty procedure that resulted in the stay of execution of Romell Broom. Prison officials eventually stopped the execution of Broom after two hours because they could not find a vein to inject the drugs. Broom’s execution was delayed by the governor of Ohio. Also, Biros argued that the new one drug procedure was untested and amounted to human experimentation. He argued that the new drug can wear off too quickly and prisoners could wake up and feel pain as the procedure progresses. Finally, Biros questioned the competency of Ohio’s executioners. 

The Supreme Court denied Biros’ request for a stay this morning. Previously, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Biros’ arguments for a stay. Currently, thirty-six states allow for the death penalty to be administered as a sentence. Thirty-five of those states use the three drug procedure.

For more information, please see:

CNN – Ohio Executes Inmate Using Single-Drug Method – 8 December 2009

The Guardian – Ohio Becomes the First U.S. State to Execute a Prisoner Using a Single Drug – 8 December 2009

MSNBC – Ohio Executes Killer with One-Drug Injection – 8 December 2009