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Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Corrections via AP
Undated photo of death row inmate Ronald Post
A condemned Ohio inmate who weighs 480 pounds and has a history of difficulty losing weight argues he would face a "torturous and lingering death" if executed in January.
Ronald Post, who shot and killed a hotel clerk in northern Ohio almost 30 years ago, said his weight, vein access, scar tissue, depression and other medical problems raise the likelihood his executioners would encounter severe problems. He's also so big that the execution gurney might not hold him, lawyers for Post said in federal court papers filed Friday.
"Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death," the filing said.
Post, 53, is scheduled to die Jan. 16 for the 1983 shooting death of Helen Vantz in Elyria. The woman worked in a motel Post was robbing, and died after the man shot her twice in the back of the head.
According to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Vantz's son, William, laughed when he first heard about the request, but immediately turned serious.
"I don't care if they have to wheel him in on a tractor-trailer; 30 years is too long," he said, according to The Plain Dealer. "Enough is enough. This is just an excuse to get out of the execution."
A spokeswoman for the prisons department had no comment on the pending litigation.
Post's attorneys also want more time to pursue arguments that claims of a full confession by the inmate to several people have been falsely exaggerated.
If you think we're fat now, wait until 2030
"Post's case is about more than his weight, and his life should be spared for reasons wholly unrelated to his obesity," his federal public defender, Joseph Wilhelm, said in a statement.
Inmates' weight has come up previously in death penalty cases in Ohio and elsewhere.
In 2008, federal courts rejected arguments by condemned double-killer Richard Cooey that he was too obese to die by injection. Cooey's attorneys had argued that prison food and limited opportunities to exercise contributed to a weight problem that would make it difficult for the execution team to find a viable vein for lethal injection.
Cooey, who was 5-foot-7 and weighed 267 pounds, was executed Oct. 14, 2008.
In 2007, it took Ohio executioners about two hours to insert IVs into the veins of condemned inmate Christopher Newton, who weighed about 265 pounds. A prison spokeswoman at the time said his size was an issue.
In 1994 in Washington state, a federal judge upheld the conviction of Mitchell Rupe, but agreed with Rupe's contention that at more than 400 pounds, he was too heavy to hang because of the risk of decapitation. Rupe argued that hanging would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
After numerous court rulings and a third trial, Rupe was eventually sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2006.
Ohio executes inmates with a single dose of pentobarbital, usually injected through the arms.
Medical personnel have had a hard time inserting IVs into Post's arms, according to the court filing. Four years ago, an Ohio State University medical center nurse needed three attempts to insert an IV into Post's left arm, the lawyers wrote.
Post has tried losing weight, but knee and back problems have made it difficult to exercise, according to his court filing.
Post's request for gastric bypass surgery has been denied, he's been encouraged not to walk because he's at risk for falling, and severe depression has contributed to his inability to limit how much he eats, his filing said.
According to The Plain Dealer, Post's attorneys said his weight has yo-yoed for years. At one point, the paper reported, the 6-foot-3 convict lost 150 pounds. While at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, Post "used that prison's exercise bike until it broke under his weight," according to the filing.
Post currently uses a wheelchair at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, The Plain Dealer reported.
In an open letter last year, William Vantz said that he’s still waiting for justice to be served for his mother.
“Some have said that since it’s been so long just let [Post] stay in prison for the remainder of his natural life. No!” William Vantz wrote for the Morning Journal.
"I am as committed to this as the day he took her life. I will never forgive or forget what he took from us. We all have recourse to the law and it’s time he paid his debt to society. It’s way overdue!"
Post's case is unusual, as the man pleaded no contest to the murder charges, The Plain Dealer reported. That means he did not admit to having committed the crime, but chose instead not to challenge the facts presented by the prosecution.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Americans can not find a way to kill somebody?,.... no way!!!
30 years that this guy has been living off of our tax dollars while this poor woman's family has waited.... waited while he ate himself via our tax dollars to a size that he says makes him too fat to kill. Wow. The fact that more tax dollars are being burned entertaining this ludicrous argument is a sorry statement about our current judicial system.
If you need humane, a couple of rounds in the back of the head as he did with his victim ought to do the trick. How about we take him and anyone else still literally eating on the taxpayer's dime and drop them on a deserted island together and we're all done. No provisions or prison guards. Just the natural resources and as many of them as we can cram on that island. We can even give it a military-sounding name by calling it "Operation: Taking Out The Trash". Maybe they'll survive on that island, maybe they won't. Who cares either way?
I say stave him to death. Talk about irony.
His weight makes him an excellent candidate for the gallows. Just cut the drop hole bigger, if needed.
I'm a physician and I recommend having somebody doing a cut down to a vein for access. Another aphorism of medicine is they are not fat in the groin crease. If all else fails just shoot the SOB!
Please God forgive me of my thoughts. Double the dose or triple it. If he is to overweight than put 2 bullets in the back of his head. . .. How long did he take when he put 2 bullets in her head.. He chose to put the weight on. It has been 30 years for him to live off the prison system. The family of the woman has suffer for 30 years while he lived. . He is a coward plain and simple............ Very distusting
Coddle the criminal, punish the victim
Technology to the rescue!
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/vein-finder.htm
Don't bother with a gurney. He can die on the floor like his victim probably did. He's lived nearly 30 years longer than she did, and it's way past time to go! Anxiety and pain? Reckon the victim had to experience anxiety and pain? Well, turnabout's fair play! He won't even remember it after he dies.
He doesn't need to diet, one bullet to the back of the head will take care of everything. Too bad his victim didn't have 30 years to think about how to get out of it.
I have a nice .40 cal hollow point that will end this debate pretty quick. There is an old saying out there and my grandfather used it alot. What is good for the goose is good for the Gander. He put two in her head I will be more than happy to put two in his.
This is getting just outrageous!! Last week a man is "gender confused" and deserves his right to a sex change, this week "I'm to fat" and don't deserve to die in pain. WTF is wrong with these people, yeah a mental disability that everyone on here likes to defend for their "insane" defenses. But, besides that...has our legal system forgot what these families of the victims have gone through or the victims themselves??!!! They had their rights taken away by other people as they mind their own business in life, yet their lives are taken because dumb-asses like these and their jerk off attorneys defending them.
I personally feel unless the person was mistakenly stuck in jail for a crime that didn't commit and there is legitimate evidence to that, then there should not be any appeal or any other bull@!$%# of "Oh, my rights have been violated"! You are in jail because you committed a crime! You choose to have your right taken away when you took someone elses! Bottom line, these @!$%#s better be happy I'm not in the legal system!
He's for you fat boy....Why don't we shot you in the back of the head 2 times, then we don't have to worry about your weight!
Hang him and lets watch his head pop off.
Shoot him twice in the back of the head just like he did to the victim 30 years ago. Hell, they should have done this to him 29 years ago!!!
If he's that big. Use an elephant gun
tree frog thats a good idea.
He should certainly be shot. Pretty sure a bullet can get thru all that fat. Why does he deserve a better death than his victim?
he looks like a pig wrap a towel around his head say he is the one that made the mohammed video strap him to a drone off to syria problem solved
Too fat to die? No Give the SOB a couple of cyanide capsules in a gummy bear and be done with it.
Coddle the criminal, punish the victim. Its sad that we pay for this man to live off us and get medical health He is a coward and most likely sitting there laughing at us because its close to his time to be put to death and he thinks he is to over weight, please It didnt take him 30 years to put 2 bullets in that woman head. Mean while the family conitues to suffer because of him.
I am just trying to wrap my head around the fact that he has been on death row for 30 YEARS...what the hell? Were they just hoping if they gave him enough time that he would just eat his self to death? I mean is he eating cake and donuts? Is he afforded special trips to Mickey D's because he may starve to death if he contiues to live off of prison food? But really...30 years to wait to die? I bet the vicitms family wishes he gave her 30 more years to live. Piece of scum...I hope he chokes on that prison issued food he gets apprantly 25 times a day.
Real intelligence commenting on this post!
Where are all the Anti-Abortion "Abortion is Killing" people when you need them?
If a fetus puts two bullets in the back of someones head, I say take em out!
FRY THIS GUY!!!!
FRY THIS GUY!!!!
Hey Gumdrop - you said you couldn't believe how bloodthirsty this country is.
"I just wish we lived in a country that did not take such joy in killing another human being."
When you find a country that DOESN'T get at least some form of satisfaction for making people REAP what they sow - ie. blow this sucker's head off just like he did his victim - let us know. In some countries, there is NO chance of "sitting on death row for 30 years while waiting to be executed." You are tried, you are convicted, you are SHOT OR HUNG AT DAWN. I'd say America is TOO lenient and soft on these jackasses, if anything.
I got here late so if my comment is a repeat. I did not mean to copy. Don't feed him. Weld his cell door shut and open it in about a year and a half. If he is still alive shoot him.