Last night, the U.S. Supreme Court justices denied a stay of execution for 43-year-old Ronald Phillips, the Associated Press reported. He is scheduled to be executed by Lethal Injection this morning in Ohio. Phillips was given the death penalty following conviction in 1993 after he raped and murdered his girlfriend’s toddler, 3-year-old Sheila Marie Evans. He beat the toddler to death.
At 10:14 yesterday morning, he was taken to await capital punishment at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
The facility has been dubbed the “Death House.”
Two dissenting justices not enough to hold death at bay for condemned inmate
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Justice Sonia Sotomayor offered dissented on staying the execution. The appeal to the justices was premised on Ohio’s lethal injection protocol. If the U.S. Supreme Court had granted the stay, Raymond Tibbetts and Gary Otte would also be spared the imposition of their death sentences, at least, until legal arguments can be heard concerning the use of the sedative Midazolam.
Phillips’ lawyers contend that the drug is ineffective and cited the 2014 execution of Dennis McQuire as an example. Witnesses to McQuire’s execution in allege that he gasped and snorted before he died 26 minutes later.
Midazolam used in tandem with the paralytic rocuronium bromide and the heart-stopper potassium chloride has been likened to burning condemned inmates “at the stake,” according to federal defense attorneys and USA Today.
Age-based appeal also denied, still no stay of execution
An additional appeal to the highest court was age-based and was also rejected.
His lawyers argued that the U.S. Supreme Court bars executing people age 18 and younger. He was 19 when he murdered the three-year-old child. His attorneys want the Supreme Court to, allegedly, align with the Eight Amendment and raise the bar to age 21.
Attorneys for Ohio asserted that Phillips’ legal contentions were conflicting and without merit, according to ABC News.
For example, the state’s lawyers’ relayed, Phillips’ age-based appeal argued that neither youth nor IQ can be “reduced to a number,” ABC News reported. The attorneys, therefore, stated that Phillips couldn't “have it both ways” – it can no more make a person eligible for death than it can make a person ineligible for death.
Past death dates postponed for lack of drugs and inmate’s offer of organs
In 2013, Phillips’ original date with death was postponed when Ohio could not obtain pentobarbital needed to carry out the execution. He was also slated to be put to death that year before McQuire, according to ABC News. He offered himself for organ donation, an idea that was eventually rejected. As an effect, however, McGuire was executed first.
Unless Phillips is granted a stay, his execution will be witnessed by one of his relatives, Sheila Marie Evans’ relatives, a nurse, a chaplain, and a spiritual adviser, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. Five media witnesses will also be present.
When the toddler was beaten to death by Phillips, she had 139 bruises. She weighed 41 pounds and was barely three-feet tall. Phillips confessed to raping and killing her.
Inmate’s final meal request
Last night and this morning, Phillips has been allowed to see attorneys, spiritual advisers, friends, and family members, USA today reported. His request for his last meal, last evening, was a two-liter bottle of Pepsi, cheese pizza with mushrooms and bell pepper, unleavened bread, strawberry cheesecake, and grape juice.
At 9:45 this morning, the prison warden is set to read Phillips’ his death warrant.
