COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A condemned Ohio child killer who
wants to donate a kidney to his mother before his execution is
requesting another reprieve after the state rejected his first organ
donation request.
Attorneys for the inmate, Ronald Phillips, want
the execution delayed until 2016. They say by then, Phillips’
66-year-old mother either will achieve necessary weight loss to safely
undergo transplant surgery or likely will succumb to complications of
kidney disease.
Phillips’ latest request to Gov. John Kasich’s
office was filed this month. A message seeking comment was left Friday
for the governor’s spokesman.
Phillips, 40, is out of appeals. He
was sentenced to die for the rape and death of Sheila Marie Evans, his
girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter, in Akron in 1993.
Lisa Lagos, one of Phillips’ attorneys, said they are hopeful the state will work with them on the
reprieve request.
"We
all have the same goal, just trying to get the best outcome," Lagos
said. "You know, this execution is going to happen no matter what. …
As the governor said, if a life can be saved, that should be allowed to
happen."
The prison system rejected the last-minute organ donation
request Phillips made in November, but Kasich delayed his execution
until July 2 to give the state time to see whether it was possible to
comply.
The state concluded it wasn’t feasible, saying Phillips
didn’t have time to undergo surgery and recuperate by the execution. The
prisons department said it has an obligation to make sure he is
healthy, despite the fact he would be put to death.
Phillips’
execution was rescheduled this week to Sept. 18 after a judge ordered a 2
½-month moratorium on Ohio executions to allow time for arguments over
new lethal injection procedures. Lagos said the date change doesn’t
affect the reprieve request.
She said Phillips’ mother must lose
weight before she could safely have transplant surgery and has started
the process of pursuing bariatric surgery to achieve that. The requested
delay would allow time for that surgery, the transplant surgery and
Phillips’ recovery, Lagos said.
Kasich previously denied an organ
donation request by condemned inmate Dennis McGuire on grounds that
McGuire couldn’t identify a relative who would receive his organs, as
required under prison policy. McGuire was executed Jan. 16 and
repeatedly gasped during the 26 minutes it took him to die.
The
state subsequently decided to increase dosages of its lethal injection
drugs to allay concerns but maintains that the process was
constitutional and that McGuire didn’t experience pain or distress.
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