MERCY SHOWN: Prisoner will no longer be executed
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Governor John Kasich has spared a condemned inmate who says he’s too fat to be humanely executed.
Kasich followed a recommendation of mercy by the state parole board, which said it didn’t doubt Ronald Post’s guilt, but said there were too many problems with how he was represented 30 years ago.
Post, who weighs 450 pounds (204 kilograms), never raised the issue of his size with the board.
Post had been scheduled to die Jan. 16 for killing motel clerk Helen Vantz in a 1983 robbery.
In its decision, the parole board rejected arguments made by Post’s attorneys that he deserves mercy because of lingering doubts about his “legal and moral guilt” in a woman’s death, but it said it couldn’t ignore perceived missteps by his lawyers.
“Post took Vantz’s life, devastating the lives of her loved ones in the process,” the board said in its 5-3 decision. But it said a majority of its members agreed his sentence should be commuted to life in prison without chance of parole because of omissions, missed opportunities and questionable decisions made by his previous attorneys and because that legal representation didn’t meet expectations for a death penalty case.
Separately, Post had argued in federal court that executing him would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
His attorneys said he would suffer “a torturous and lingering death” as executioners tried to find a vein or use a backup method where lethal drugs are injected directly into muscle.
One of Vantz’s sons, William, characterized Post’s obesity claim as “another way for a coward to try and get out of what debt he owes to society”.
Post’s attorneys have argued that the long-held presumption that Post confessed to the murder to several people has been falsely exaggerated.
Post admitted involvement in the crime as the getaway driver to a police informant but didn’t admit to the killing.
“Sure ain’t no murderer,” Post told that informant, according to Post’s clemency filing.
Post’s attorneys argued that prosecutors misrepresented to the judge that Post had confessed to sole involvement in Vantz’s death.
'Too fat to die' Death Row inmate gets reprieve
MERCY SHOWN: Prisoner will no longer be executed
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio Governor John Kasich has spared a condemned inmate who says he’s too fat to be humanely executed.
Kasich followed a recommendation of mercy by the state parole board, which said it didn’t doubt Ronald Post’s guilt, but said there were too many problems with how he was represented 30 years ago.
Post, who weighs 450 pounds (204 kilograms), never raised the issue of his size with the board.
Post had been scheduled to die Jan. 16 for killing motel clerk Helen Vantz in a 1983 robbery.
In its decision, the parole board rejected arguments made by Post’s attorneys that he deserves mercy because of lingering doubts about his “legal and moral guilt” in a woman’s death, but it said it couldn’t ignore perceived missteps by his lawyers.
“Post took Vantz’s life, devastating the lives of her loved ones in the process,” the board said in its 5-3 decision. But it said a majority of its members agreed his sentence should be commuted to life in prison without chance of parole because of omissions, missed opportunities and questionable decisions made by his previous attorneys and because that legal representation didn’t meet expectations for a death penalty case.
Separately, Post had argued in federal court that executing him would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
His attorneys said he would suffer “a torturous and lingering death” as executioners tried to find a vein or use a backup method where lethal drugs are injected directly into muscle.
One of Vantz’s sons, William, characterized Post’s obesity claim as “another way for a coward to try and get out of what debt he owes to society”.
Post’s attorneys have argued that the long-held presumption that Post confessed to the murder to several people has been falsely exaggerated.
Post admitted involvement in the crime as the getaway driver to a police informant but didn’t admit to the killing.
“Sure ain’t no murderer,” Post told that informant, according to Post’s clemency filing.
Post’s attorneys argued that prosecutors misrepresented to the judge that Post had confessed to sole involvement in Vantz’s death.
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