After an hour of failed attempts, prison officials could not find a suitable vein in Alva Campbell’s arms. His lethal injection has been "called off."
Alva Campbell's execution is delayed indefinitely.
LUCASVILLE — After prison officials couldn’t find a suitable vein, Alva Campbell’s scheduled execution by lethal injection Tuesday was called off.
The execution effort was halted after prison personnel spent at least 25 minutes trying to find a suitable vein in both of Campbell's arms and in his right leg. They appeared to palpate veins in both arms and the right leg.
As personnel worked on his leg, after stopping with his arms, Campbell removed his glasses and held his hand to his eyes, wiping his eyes.
A staff member patted him on the shoulder and 2 others shook Campbell's hand. Campbell then put on his glasses and sat with his hands in his lap as his pants leg was rolled down and sock pulled up.
Prisons director Gary Mohr said the team did its best but the condition of Campbell's veins had changed since checks in Tuesday.
This is only the third time in U.S. history that an execution has been called off after the process has begun.
The execution was abruptly halted just after it appeared an IV was inserted in Campbell's right leg.
Initially, the procedure was delayed for at least 45 minutes as prison officials searched for a suitable vein. “We are going to take our time,” said prisons Director Gary Mohr.
But after witnesses were escorted to their spots just outside the execution chamber, prison officials announced the execution would not take place.
Execution to be rescheduled
ODRC director Gary Mohr eventually spoke to media at Lucasville. Alva Campbell will remain on death row and Ohio Governor John Kasich has to decide when to reschedule execution.
Campbell was on parole from another murder conviction on April 2, 1997, the day he killed Charles Dials, 18, in near the Franklin County courthouse in Columbus.
He already had confessed to a string of armed robberies after being released from prison in 1992, meaning that once his parole was revoked, he’d never get out.
Botched execution
Ohio paused executions three years ago after controversy over the prolonged execution of Dennis McGuire, 53, of Preble County using a previously untested combination of lethal injection drugs, midazolam and hydromorphone.
McGuire gasped and snorted in the 26 minutes it took for him to die in January 2014.
In 2015, Ohio Governor John Kasich said the state would not switch to alternative execution methods, such as firing squad or hanging.
Earlier this year, he delayed executions while awaiting a federal court ruling challenging lethal injection procedures.
Executions resumed on July 26, when Ronald R. Phillips, 43, was executed for the 1993 death of a 3-year-old girl he had raped and beaten.
Then, on Sept. 13, the state executed Gary Otte, 45, who killed 2 people in a Cleveland suburb in 1992.
The 3-drug combination now used in Ohio begins with midazolam hydrochloride and ends with potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
The 2nd drug used is chosen from a list of 3: vecuronium bromide, pancuronium bromide or rocuronium bromide.
Columbus Dispatch, Twitter, November 15, 2017
Ohio's plans to execute condemned killer with multiple health problems delayed
"This traumatic series of events could have been easily avoided. Campbell's health concerns were well documented, and everybody knew this was going to pose issues." -- Kevin Werner, Ohioans to Stop Executions.
LUCASVILLE, OHIO -- Ohio's plans to execute a condemned killer with multiple health problems on Wednesday was being delayed while a team continued to assess his medical condition, but the state's prisons director said he's confident the execution would go on.
Gary Mohr, head of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the execution team was focusing on the accessibility of inmate Alva Campbell's veins along with issues related to his age.
"We're not going to rush to execute," Mohr said Wednesday morning. "We're just taking our time and I think that's fine."
Campbell, 69, was scheduled to die for killing a teenager during a carjacking two decades ago.
He has suffered from breathing problems related to a decades-long smoking habit. His attorneys said he has required a walker, relied on a colostomy bag and needed breathing treatments four times a day.
Prison officials planned to bring him into the death chamber in a wheelchair and also provide him a wedge pillow on the gurney.
Campbell's attorneys had warned the inmate's death could become a spectacle because of his breathing problems and because an exam failed to find veins suitable for IV insertion.
They argued he was too ill to execute, and also should be spared because of the effects of a brutal childhood.
Campbell spent Wednesday morning praying and watching TV, said JoEllen Smith, a prisons spokeswoman.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stop the execution. Last week, Republican Gov. John Kasich denied Campbell's request for clemency.
Campbell arrived at the death house Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) south of Columbus. In the afternoon he was calm, Smith said.
The brother, sister and uncle of Charles Dials, fatally shot by Campbell in 1997, were to witness the execution, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said. Four attorneys were to witness on behalf of Campbell.
Campbell's last meal, called a special meal in Ohio, includes pork chops, greens, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese and milk.
He has chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder as the result of a decadeslong two-pack-a-day smoking habit, a prison doctor has said.
Earlier this month, Campbell lost a bid to be executed by firing squad after a federal judge questioned whether lawmakers would enact the bill needed to allow the method.
Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien called Campbell "the poster child for the death penalty."
Prosecutors said his health claims are ironic given he faked paralysis to escape court custody the day of the fatal carjacking.
On April 2, 1997, Campbell was in a wheelchair when he overpowered a Franklin County sheriff's deputy on the way to a court hearing on several armed robbery charges, records show.
Campbell took the deputy's gun, carjacked the 18-year-old Dials and drove around with him for several hours before shooting him twice in the head as Dials crouched in the footwell of his own truck, according to court records.
Campbell was regularly beaten, sexually abused and tortured as a child, his attorneys have argued in court filings and before the Ohio Parole Board.
Source: The Associated Press, November 15, 2017 | 11:04 am
Ohio Delays Another Execution After Struggling to Find Vein
(Reuters) - The Ohio government delayed the planned execution of a 69-year-old convicted murderer on Wednesday after officials were unable to find a suitable vein in the inmate, who is sick with cancer and other diseases, the Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported.
Alva Campbell Jr., who also suffers from lung disease, asthma and heart problems and uses a walker and colostomy bag, had argued through his lawyer that he was too sick for a lethal injection, but lost a bid to be killed by a firing squad instead.
It was the fifth "botched" execution in Ohio in recent years and the second time an attempted execution was abandoned, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. The advocacy group called for an immediate moratorium on executions in the state.
"This is not justice, and this is not humane," Mike Brickner, the group's policy director, said in a statement. "Campbell was poked and prodded for nearly two hours as prison officials and medical personnel attempted to find a useable vein."
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected a final appeal by Campbell to stop the execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. David Stebbins, Campbell's lawyer, had argued that Campbell's medical conditions could make it hard to find suitable veins to inject.
"The execution was halted," Stebbins wrote in an email on Wednesday. "I have no further information." The state's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction did not immediately respond to questions.
Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich had earlier rejected clemency for Campbell, who has said he was beaten and abused as a child.
Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, told reporters that Kasich would have to decide when to reschedule the execution, the Dispatch reported. There was no immediate response from Kasich's office.
Romell Broom's botched execution
On September 15, 2009 Romell Broom's execution was stopped by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland after an execution team tried for two hours to find a suitable vein.
Broom said he was stuck with needles at least 18 times, with pain so excruciating he cried and screamed.
Romell Broom became the first person in Ohio to survive an execution attempt when executioners couldn't find a vein sturdy enough to hold up as they injected a lethal drug cocktail into his blood.
Death row staff spent two hours poking Broom with needles so many times that the puncture wounds became swollen and bruised.
One needle inserted by the prison doctor struck a bone. Broom cried out in pain several times, according to court records.
Midazolam
Campbell served 20 years of a life sentence for killing a man in Cleveland before being released by a parole board in 1992. Five years after his release, he was arrested and jailed for robbery in Columbus, Ohio, and was awaiting a court date when he faked paralysis, according to court documents.
As a deputy was transporting Campbell in a wheelchair to the courthouse, he suddenly beat the deputy, stole her pistol and fled, according to court records. He then car-jacked and fatally shot 18-year-old Charles Dials. Campbell was convicted in 1997 on robbery and murder charges.
Campbell had been the latest inmate to challenge Ohio's lethal injection methods. In September, Ohio put to death a double murderer, Gary Otte, in its second execution after a three-year hiatus because of legal challenges and difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.
Otte was put to death after he lost an appeal challenging the use of midazolam as a sedative in that protocol. Several U.S. states, including Oklahoma and Arizona, have used midazolam in executions in which witnesses said inmates appeared to twist in pain.
Twenty-four more inmates after Campbell are slated for execution in Ohio through 2022.
Source: Reuters, Chris Kenning, November 15, 2017
Ohio Called Off an Execution After Prison Officials Spent 45 Minutes Looking for a Suitable Vein
Prison officials in Ohio called off an execution Wednesday, after medical staffers spent more than 45 minutes trying to find a suitable vein through which to inject death row inmate Alva Campbell with a lethal cocktail of drugs.
After Wednesday’s unsuccessful execution attempt, each of the prison medical staffers shook the inmate’s hand.
After saying that there were no problems with Campbell’s veins 90 minutes before the execution was scheduled to begin, officials began the execution procedure. But Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction director Gary Mohr subsequently conceded that “viable” veins could not in fact be found.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, prison nurses attempted to place the IV needle twice in Campbell’s left arm, twice in his right arm, and one time in his right leg, below the knee. The paper reported that Campbell cried during the failed procedure.
“This marks the fifth botched execution for Ohio in recent years, and the second time the state could not complete an execution,” Mike Brickner, a senior policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said in a statement. “This not justice, and this is not humane.”
Campbell, who is 69 years old, has been on death row for two decades for the 1997 murder of 18-year-old Charles Dials. Campbell suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, needs multiple breathing treatments per day, and uses a colostomy bag. His lawyers had argued that he was too sickly to be executed. During a test run on Monday for the execution, no suitable veins could be found and the inmate became agitated when prison staffers attempted to lay him flat, according to the Associated Press. A judge ruled that Campbell could use a wedge pillow to help him breathe during the execution.
"After Wednesday’s unsuccessful execution attempt, each of the prison medical staffers shook the inmate’s hand."
Campbell’s ordeal is similar to that of another Ohio inmate whose execution was called off after prison employees could not find a suitable vein. In 2009, that prisoner, Romell Broom, tried to help nurses find a vein on his own body—to no avail. In 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state was could attempt to execute Broom again. He is still on death row.
After Wednesday’s unsuccessful execution attempt, each of the prison medical staffers shook the inmate’s hand. For now, Campbell will go back to death row. His fate is now in the hands of Gov. John Kasich (R), who is tasked with rescheduling the execution.
Update: The Associated Press is reporting that Gov. Kasich has rescheduled Alva Campell’s execution for June 5, 2019.
Source:
Mother Jones, Nathalie Baptiste, November 15, 2017
Ohio sets new execution day after failed try
LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's governor has set a new execution date that's a year and a half away for a condemned inmate whose poor veins spared him from death.
Republican Gov. John Kasich set a June 5, 2019, execution date for death row prisoner Alva Campbell as part of a formal reprieve issued Wednesday afternoon.
Ohio prisons director Gary Mohr called off Campbell's execution Wednesday morning after execution team members worked unsuccessfully for about 25 minutes to find usable veins.
Campbell's attorney David Stebbins says governors must include dates in such reprieves and he doesn't know the significance of the 2019 date other than it was free and in the near future.
Stebbins says the date gives Campbell's attorneys time to figure out their next steps.
The lawyer for a condemned Ohio inmate whose execution was called off says his client is happy to be alive.
Attorney David Stebbins said death row prisoner Alva Campbell called Wednesday a day he'll never forget.
Stebbins said he doesn't know what will happen next, but says Campbell's health problems and poor veins are a continuing problem.
Stebbins said execution team members stuck Campbell with needles twice in the right arm, once in the left and once in the right shin.
Stebbins said Campbell shook hands with execution team members and then wiped away tears after being informed the execution was being called off.
Campbell was due to be executed for a carjack killing of an 18-year-old in 1997.
Source: The Associated Press, November 15, 2017
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