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| Court Lifts Barrier to Ohio Execution |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/10/2002 |
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A federal appeals court Monday lifted a stay of execution for an inmate who claims an accomplice stabbed the store clerk he was convicted of killing. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had halted John W. Byrd Jr.'s scheduled Sept. 12 execution and granted a stay while a federal magistrate investigated his claim of innocence. Monday's ruling frees the state to ask the Ohio Supreme Court for another execution date. The state's attorney general planned to do so Tuesday, spokesman Joe Case said. Greg Meyers, chief counsel for the Ohio public defender's office, said he had not seen the decision and could not comment. Byrd had said he wanted to be electrocuted to illustrate the brutality of capital punishment. But in November, Gov. Bob Taft signed a law banning electrocution, which makes lethal injection the only means of execution in Ohio. Two men have died by injection since Ohio reinstated the death penalty in 1981. Byrd, 38, maintains accomplice John Brewer stabbed the 40-year-old convenience store clerk. Brewer has admitted in affidavits and testimony to killing Monte Tewksbury. Brewer, serving a life sentence for his part in the robbery, cannot be tried again for the 1983 slaying. Prosecutors said he is trying to spare Byrd's life with his confession. After hearing evidence in December, U.S. Magistrate Michael Merz ruled there is 'no room for a conclusion other than John Brewer's word is not to be believed.'' |
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