Gov. John Kasich has denied mercy for the next inmate in line for execution. But his order also delayed that lethal injection.
Kasich said in a statement he agrees with the parole board’s 10-2 recommendation against clemency for Ronald Phillips, the 43-year-old Akron man sentenced to die in January for raping and murdering his girlfriend’s three year old daughter Sheila Marie Evans in 1993.
A federal magistrate has delayed Phillips’ execution, as well as that of Raymond Tibbetts in February and Gary Otte in March, because of a legal challenge to the state’s lethal injection method.
Kasich ordered Phillips’ execution moved to February and Tibbetts’ date to April. Kasich’s spokesperson said that delay should give the courts time to work out the pending legal issues.
