LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Ohio is preparing to put a condemned child killer to death in the state’s first execution in more than three years.
Forty-three-year-old Ronald Phillips is scheduled to die Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He was convicted for the 1993 rape and killing of Sheila Marie Evans, his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter.
Phillips and other death row inmates have challenged the state’s new three-drug execution method, which includes a sedative used in some problematic executions in Ohio and elsewhere. Phillips had requested a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court to continue legal appeals. Late Tuesday night, justices denied his requests.
Phillips’ attorneys call the case tragic, but say he wasn’t one of the worst offenders.
The county prosecutor says it’s time for justice to be served.
Ohio last executed an inmate in 2014.
