The judge who is determining the mental capacity of a killer was glad that Ohio Gov. John Kasich issued an unusual two-week reprieve from an execution scheduled for yesterday, reports the Columbus Dispatch. “When you're dealing with somebody's execution here, I just think you have to be absolutely sure you're making the right decision,” said Judge Stuart Friedman of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
Friedman will preside over a hearing next Thursday to determine whether Abdul Hamin Awkal, 53, is mentally competent to be executed for the 1992 murders of his wife and brother-in-law. Although Awkal admits he committed the murders, he doesn't know that's why he's being executed, say his attorneys at the Ohio Justice & Policy Center. He believes that he orchestrated U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan from his Death Row cell and that the CIA ordered his execution because he stopped feeding information to the agency, said the agency’s David Singleton.