Ohio is scheduling executions at a pace not seen there since capital punishment was reinstated a decade ago, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Having already carried out three executions this summer, the state has scheduled at least one lethal injection every month through the end of the year. That could mean that by year’s end, Ohio will have executed eight men in the final seven months of 2009. The previous high was seven in all of 2004.
They are coming too fast, argues Ohio Public Defender Tim Young. He says the burden on state officials to carry out the tasks in rapid-fire succession could lead to careless mistakes. “This should never become ordinary, it should never become run-of-the-mill, it should never be a normal happening like the turning of a calendar page,” Young said. There could have been more this year if not for a decision by Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who heeded a request from the state prison system and public defender’s office to not schedule executions within days of each other.