Ohio State to use suicide drug in March execution of condemned killer Anesthetic has never been used by itself

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins AP Legal Affairs Writer LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio's execution of neo-Nazi Frank Spisak will likely be the last time the state uses sodium thiopental, a drug in short supply nationally, as the state looks ahead to its next scheduled execution and plans to use an anesthetic used in assisted suicides in Oregon and Washington. Spisak was executed Thursday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The 59-year-old was convicted of killing three people on a Cleveland college campus in 1982 in a shooting spree that targeted blacks. The condemned killer's final words were Bible verses read in halting German. The reading drew snickers from witnesses, including two brothers of one victim and the daughter of another. The U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental stopped making the drug, creating a shortage for the more than 30 states that used it. Ohio plans to use pentobarbital for the first time in March for the scheduled execution of Johnnie Baston. The anesthetic has never been used by itself in a U.S. execution. Oklahoma uses pentobarbital, but in combination with other drugs that paralyze inmates and stop their hearts. Baston, 37, is scheduled to die March 10 for the death of Toledo storekeeper Chong Mah. The 53-year-old man was shot in the back of the head. Baston's requested clemency but the Ohio Parole Board has recommended against it. A decision from Gov. John Kasich is pending. Drugs used in lethal injection have become an issue since a legal challenge by condemned killers made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court in 2008 ruled constitutional a three-drug method used in Kentucky. The following year, Ohio became the first state to switch to a single dose of sodium thiopental. The state made the switch to end lawsuits over the three-drug system it previously used. Once Ohio switched to sodium thiopental, other states followed suit and now are looking again at Ohio and the use of pentobarbital. Spisak was Ohio's longest-serving death row inmate before execution -- more than 27 years. Spisak blamed the 1982 crimes on a hatred of gays, blacks and Jews and on mental illness related to sexual identity confusion. Defense attorneys watched the execution, and issued a statement saying their client committed the crimes because of severe mental illness, not out of hate. "We have the ability to provide treatment and protect the public without killing mentally ill people who commit crimes," said Alan Rossman and Michael Benz. Cora Warford, whose son was among those killed, said in a statement afterward that "justice has been served." Spisak identified himself as a woman and went by Frances Spisak in correspondence, a name defense attorneys also used. They claimed their client suffered from a severe bipolar disorder that was not diagnosed until years after the conviction. The parole board and Kasich rejected their argument in ruling against clemency. The 1982 shootings occurred over several months, from February through August. Brian Warford, 17, was taking classes at Cleveland State University as an alternative education student earning his high school degree when he was shot and killed. The Rev. Horace Rickerson, 57, was killed in a campus bathroom where he had rebuffed Spisak's sexual advances. Timothy Sheehan, 50, who worked in Cleveland State's maintenance department, was killed because Spisak believed Sheehan might have witnessed Rickerson's shooting. John Hardaway was shot seven times as he waited for a commuter train by someone later identified as Spisak. He survived and was present at the execution Thursday. Coletta Dartt, a university employee, was shot at as she exited a bathroom stall. She pushed Spisak away and ran. Spisak was caught in September 1982 after firing a gun out of an apartment window, and told investigators of "hunting parties" to shoot black people. During the 1983 trial, Spisak grew a Hitler-style mustache, carried a copy of Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" and gave the Nazi salute to the jury. Published: Mon, Feb 21, 2011