COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A prison doctor couldn't find veins in the arms of a death row inmate during a pre-execution checkup, the inmate said Friday by video in rare court testimony as he challenges the state's new, never-tried lethal-injection method.
Condemned child killer Ronald Phillips said the doctor could find only a vein on his right hand following an examination Oct. 18 at the medical center at Chillicothe Correctional Institution, south of Columbus.
"I guess the Lord hid my veins from them," Phillips said.
Phillips, 40, testified under questioning by his attorneys that the doctor said he wasn't part of the state's lethal-injection process when asked to do the checks. A prison nurse also participated.
Phillips said he had a fear of needles dating from childhood when his parents would sell drugs and let addicts shoot up in their kitchen in a tough Akron neighborhood.
He testified by video hookup from the prison where death row is housed for more than an hour. He's scheduled to die Nov. 14 for raping and killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter, Sheila Marie Evans, in 1993.
There are no recent examples of Ohio death row inmates testifying in person or by video in federal court cases.
Phillips testified as part of a lawsuit brought by his attorneys to delay his execution while they gather evidence against the state's new execution policy, which includes a two-drug injection process.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced the new policy last month and said Monday it would use that process, which involves the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone.
The state's first choice is a specialty dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital mixed by a compounding pharmacy. If that can't be obtained, as in the case of Phillips' execution, the state will use the two-drug method to put Phillips to death.
Source: BurlingtonFreePress, AP, November 2, 2013
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