Filiaggi seeks to stop execution

[carolinem]

Filiaggi now seeks to stop execution


James Filiaggi in January said he was ready to die and instructed his attorneys to remain silent during a parole hearing when it was their chance to fight to have his death sentence overturned.

Filiaggi, of Lorain County, was already frustrated that Gov. Ted
Strickland had pushed his execution date back 2 months from February to have more time to review death-penalty cases.

Since then, the governor's office and prison officials have begun to refer to Filiaggi, 41, as a "volunteer" because of his willingness to forgo last-ditch court appeals and be executed Tuesday for fatally shooting his ex-wife 13 years ago.

But on Friday, with less than 100 hours remaining in his life --
Filiaggi changed his mind and asked to be spared.

"After a period of indecision," Filiaggi's attorney Jeffrey Gamso wrote in a filing to the Ohio Supreme Court requesting a stay, "Mr. Filiaggi determined on April 19, 2007, that he wished to participate in the case challenging Ohio's lethal injection procedures and protocols."

At least nine death-row inmates are challenging Ohio's lethal-injection process.

They are calling it a violation of their constitutional rights against
cruel and unusual punishment. Similar court action is under way in at least a dozen other states.

In Ohio, several inmates have joined the lawsuit and staved off
imminent execution, including Kenneth Biros, who had already been moved to the death house on March 20 when he learned a court had upheld a ruling that allowed him to join the lawsuit and delay his execution.

But Filiaggi had expressed no desire to join the lawsuit - until now.

Then on Friday they asked the Supreme Court to halt Tuesday's execution so that Filiaggi can live long enough to learn if he can participate in the lawsuit.

"If it is determined that lethal injection as practiced in Ohio
violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and if Mr. Filiaggi is denied a stay," Gamso wrote, "his execution will have been unconstitutional.

"And there will, of course, be no remedy."

His attorneys on Thursday asked a federal court to allow him to join the suit.

It is unclear when either court will rule on the separate requests.

The attorney general's office will fight the requests.

"The inmate has a right to file anything he wants to file, and we are going to fight vigorously for the execution to happen on Tuesday," said Leo Jennings, spokesman for the attorney general's office.

"He is definitely a latecomer, and we are going to note that in our brief. He has said repeatedly that he wanted to be executed, that he wanted to go forward."

Strickland on Thursday denied clemency for Filiaggi, even though he hadn't asked for it.

(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)

[carolinem]

Filiaggi seeks to halt his execution--State Supreme Court will consider request for stay

James Filiaggi has said for months he's prepared to die and wouldn't try to stop his execution slated for Tuesday. Apparently, he's changed his mind.

On Friday, Filiaggi's attorneys filed requests with the Ohio Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court in Southern Ohio seeking to stop the execution, saying that "after a period of indecision'' Fliaggi now wants to join a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's execution methods on the grounds it's cruel and unusual.

In his motion, Jeffrey Gamso, one of Filiaggi's attorneys, said that
the lethal injection method used by the state would "cause him to be tortured to death." The drugs used in the procedure will leave the 41-year-old "conscious, but trapped in a paralyzed body wracked with the pain of suffocation and a heart attack," Gamso wrote.

The turnabout was surprising in that it came after Filiaggi steadfastly refused to ask either the Ohio Parole Board or Gov. Ted Strickland to spare him of the sentence that was handed down after being convicted of the 1994 shooting death of his former wife, Lisa Filiaggi.

The Parole Board recommended earlier this year that Filiaggi, who told them he was ready to die and wouldn't beg for his life, not be granted clemency. And Thursday, Strickland announced that he agreed with the Parole Board and would allow Filiaggi's sentence to be carried out.

The filing throws into question whether the execution will take place Tuesday. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the prison system will move forward with the execution process until told to stop.

Ohio Supreme Court spokesman Chris Davey said the court is considering Filiaggi's request for an emergency stay of execution. Meanwhile, the federal court is expected to rule Monday whether Filiaggi should be allowed to join the 2004 lawsuit filed by death row inmate Richard Cooey, who was sentenced to death for the 1986 rape and murder of 2 women, including one from North Ridgeville.

Deputy First Attorney General Brian Laliberte said Friday that the federal court will consider arguments from both sides that must be filed over the weekend. He said if Filiaggi is granted a reprieve by the U.S. District Court, the state will appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. If it loses there, it will appeal again to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Filiaggi's attorneys did not return calls seeking comment Friday, but Laliberte said he assumes they will similarly appeal if the decision doesn't go their way. He said he didn't know if that complicated legal process can be completed by the scheduled 10 a.m. execution time on Tuesday.

"If past experience teaches us anything, it's that a delay on Tuesday could happen," he said.

Kenneth Lieux, one of Filiaggi's trial attorneys, expressed relief that his former client had renewed his efforts to avoid execution. Lieux said the death penalty has no place in a civilized society. "The eye-for-an-eye stuff doesn't serve any societal purpose," he said.

During the original trial, Lieux said, he and now county Common Pleas Judge James Burge argued that Filiaggi suffered from a serotonin imbalance. Without that "filter" on his emotions, Lieux said, Filiaggi was incapable of telling right from wrong. While it wasn't exactly an insanity defense, it raised questions about Filiaggi's mental health that could have prevailed during the appeals process, Lieux said.

Jackie Rentas, Burge's longtime secretary and one of those Filiaggi is scheduled to visit with this weekend, said she was surprised Filiaggi had decided to renew his efforts to stay alive. He has repeatedly told her during phone calls and letters from the Mansfield Correctional Institution cell where he spends 23 hours a day that he was ready to die.

"I don't want him to go because he's my friend, but I wouldn't want to live like that," she said.

Rentas said Filiaggi committed a crime, but it's not up to the state to execute him. "I truly love Jim Filiaggi," she said. "It's wrong what he did; I can't condone what he did, but he's still a human being."

Georgette Huff, Lisa Filiaggi's stepmother and the widow of her father, Richard Huff, said Thursday that her husband wanted Filiaggi to die for killing his daughter. Richard Huff never liked Filiaggi, she said. "The moment Rick laid eyes on him, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up," she said.

Huff said James Filiaggi's killing of Lisa left wounds in the family
that will never heal. "She was just so enthusiastic," she said. "She just always had a sense of possibility."

(source: Chronicle-Telegram)