Post by carolinem on Apr 24, 2007 9:29:02 GMT -5
Filiaggi's execution delayed
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 10:02 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
LUCASVILLE, Ohio The scheduled 10 a.m. execution of James J. Filiaggi has been put on hold as prison officials await word from the U.S. Supreme Court on his last-ditch appeal.
Filiaggi, 41, of Lorain, was to be lethally injected this morning as punishment for gunning down his ex-wife 13 years ago. But Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville would not proceed until the justices weigh in.
Yesterday, the Ohio Supreme Court, a federal judge and a federal appellate panel all rejected Filiaggi's attempts to delay the execution.
Ironically, for months, Filiaggi had bypassed legal appeals, essentially becoming a volunteer for an early execution.
However, late last week, he changed his mind and authorized his attorney, Jeff Gamso, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, to file an appeal challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.
In a 96-hour flurry, Filiaggi's appeals were rejected by three courts. Gov. Ted Strickland turned down two clemency requests, one just yesterday for a reprieve to allow time for the condemned man to continue his legal fight.
Filiaggi was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Lisa Huff Filiaggi, his ex-wife and mother of their two daughters, now teenagers. On Jan. 24, 1994, Filiaggi broke into her home and chased her to a neighbor's house. There he forced her into a bathroom and used a 9 mm Luger pistol to fatally shoot her in the shoulder and head, cursing her as he did so.
He later tried unsuccessfully to kill his ex-wife's stepfather before fleeing the state.
It wasn't my intention that evening, he said in a pool media interview earlier this year. I was planning to put my brains on her wall. With depression, you don't think straight.
Filiaggi would become the first person executed in Ohio under Strickland's term, which began Jan. 8.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 10:02 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
LUCASVILLE, Ohio The scheduled 10 a.m. execution of James J. Filiaggi has been put on hold as prison officials await word from the U.S. Supreme Court on his last-ditch appeal.
Filiaggi, 41, of Lorain, was to be lethally injected this morning as punishment for gunning down his ex-wife 13 years ago. But Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville would not proceed until the justices weigh in.
Yesterday, the Ohio Supreme Court, a federal judge and a federal appellate panel all rejected Filiaggi's attempts to delay the execution.
Ironically, for months, Filiaggi had bypassed legal appeals, essentially becoming a volunteer for an early execution.
However, late last week, he changed his mind and authorized his attorney, Jeff Gamso, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, to file an appeal challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.
In a 96-hour flurry, Filiaggi's appeals were rejected by three courts. Gov. Ted Strickland turned down two clemency requests, one just yesterday for a reprieve to allow time for the condemned man to continue his legal fight.
Filiaggi was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Lisa Huff Filiaggi, his ex-wife and mother of their two daughters, now teenagers. On Jan. 24, 1994, Filiaggi broke into her home and chased her to a neighbor's house. There he forced her into a bathroom and used a 9 mm Luger pistol to fatally shoot her in the shoulder and head, cursing her as he did so.
He later tried unsuccessfully to kill his ex-wife's stepfather before fleeing the state.
It wasn't my intention that evening, he said in a pool media interview earlier this year. I was planning to put my brains on her wall. With depression, you don't think straight.
Filiaggi would become the first person executed in Ohio under Strickland's term, which began Jan. 8.