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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:
Put him in front of a firing squad. Quick, painless, and foolproof. Fat coward.
#659 Good thought. We're just toooooo nice to people who kill other people. Isn't there a "Do unto others what they have done to you?" An IV may not work, but one hollowpoint bullet would.
there are a lot of issues here: his plea of nolo contendre meant he did not plead innocense. Did that mean he was given false hope of life in prison by his defense attorneys? Then there are the 20+ years he was allowed to "grow" when he should have had a timely execution. And finally there is the obesity factor. It is the latter that is ridiculous. How do bariatric patients endure surgery--do they bite on a bullett? There is a myriad of ways to find veins; and with some flouroscopy and lidocaine; he will hardly feel anything. he should feel pain for taking the life of a young mother just before Christmas. I find myself hoping he has a protracted execution and a painful one at that--even knowing this is a compassionate society. Enough with the compassion; now it is time to send him to meet his final judgment. AMEN
Really....who cares if he's too fat to be executed....he did the crime, he's been in prison for 30 years. That's enough tax dollars wasted on a useless fat guy. They should execute him despite his weight or any other excuses he can think of to get out of dying. I'm sure he didn't take into consideration the poor woman that he shot in the head 30 some years ago, why should we consider sparing his life? Listen up fat guy...you need to die for what you did to this woman and we really don't care that it might hurt......
What's wrong with two bullets to the back of the head? Cheap and quick.
What disturbs me is that it costs more to feed these fat inmates a year, than it does to go to a top private university (around 50,000). They should have spent 25 cents on a .45 caliber bullet and ended his life the day of his sentencing 30 years ago and given to money to students who need financial aid.
They could put him on a low calorie high fiber diet then run electrical current through his muscles to work them. He could easily lose 3-5 pounds a week that way and look svelt for his date with death.
Stake him out to an ant hill.
Two ways to go about this. Get in a PICC line using ultrasound which any well training medical personal can easily do for less than an hour. Or do what most countries do. Let him face a firing squad, it's cheaper and besides "He who kills by the bullet should also die by the bullet" The woman he killed did not have a choice of how to die neither should he. He got 30 years extra that's more than enough!
I've never really liked the whole lethal injection method. What's wrong with a firing squad?
I've always said that if I had to be executed, I think the guillotine would be the way to go. Yes, it seems gruesome, but it has got to be the quickest death. Even if you somehow linger for a few seconds, unconsciousnes and death would be nearly immediate. How bad can a few seconds really be, then it is lights out.
Sorry for feeding you too much while waiting...to redeem ourselves, we'll put you on a crash diet that will allow justice to be served by the due date in a humane manner.
Its time for the States to use a Guillotine as a speedy way to carry out the Death Sentence. Death is instantaneous so it is not cruel or unusual which are stupid terms anyway when passing judgement. What about the techniques used by perpetrators that committed their capital crime. Some have been so heinous that they defy logic. Also, it doesn't matter if the condemned is tall, short, fat or skinny, one size fits all. Wooosh and the job is done! I firmly believe that serious crime would plummet if those that were about to commit a capital crime might lose their head over it, yes they just might have second thoughts before committing it. Furthermore, it is time to clean out Death Row across the USA. Continous executitions in 1 weeks time or less. It is time for Society to take the trash out and let Justice prevail.
Tortuous and Lingering Death? Lets call it even then!!!!
Put his fat butt on 1200 Cals./day. Give him three apples for snacks. No sodas, just water. Go down to the used sporting goods store and "borrow" a treadmill or buy one if you have too. For his one hour the court says he has to have everyday, cuff him to the balance bars and use the leg shackles to make him stay on the roller. One hour a day at 4 mph, 7 days a week and he'll be skinny enough by January that anyone can find a vein. Or, put that sucker in his neck, leg or cut him down and stick it in. Two minutes max. I'm not a doctor, but me and my pocket knife would have it in and him on the way to Jesus before our coffee got cold. Too bad that some states lack the guts to get rid of the scum in our country. Start putting the ones we have on death row down and that saying about it not being a deterrent will change. Now, people can do capital crimes and live out a natural lifetime. Who'd be afraid of that???
While he languishes on death row, he is being cruelly and unusually punished. If he is guilty beyond any doubt, and has been sentenced to death, kill him and be done with it. Personally, I like the idea of "eye for eye" justice doled out by the victim(s), their relatives, or any other interested party. Just get it done.
Look, I've been unemployed for most of the year. I have a lot of experience, and educated as well. Here's my sales pitch. Surely some federal department with authorization can create a new job title that would enable the hiring of one individual that can do these sort of executions in a more timely fashion. I can pass the background check, and any other necessary test to show that I am of sound mind. So, we've fixed two existing problems with one decision. I gain steady employment with nice benefits and these sort of convicted individuals, (that shouldn't have any rights whatsoever), can be dealt with instead of falling through the cracks in the judicial system.
Damn man, two to the chest and one to the head or is it two to the head and one to the chest...just shoot him, that should do the trick
I know a marine biologist who's an expert at injectinmg whales. He'll be more then happy to end this clown's life.
Put the Fat SOB in a room full of food and let him eat himself to death.......Scumbag.
Put two bullets in the s o b's head,just like he did to the woman he killed,and start execute all inmates on death row instead of wasting our tax dollars on bull@!$%# lawsuits
.45 ACP, one outta do it.
ELEPHANT GUN ..ANY ONE?
How absurd! How about we stop feeding him?
Just use a really long needle and stick straight to the heart. Whats the problem? That's the most sorry excuse to not get executed. That's so funny what these people will try to get out of what they got coming. Never should have done the crime.
All I have to say is...wow. The excuses that this group of criminals is coming up with these days when their time comes to pay the piper...again wow. Someone above posted about the cowardice of these murdering types who in the act of one crime commit another thereby getting the ruling of "death" for capital crimes. This is one of the wisest comments ever made. How quickly, carelessly and violently they can and do take the life of another human or humans, but when the time comes to answer for their crimes against humanity, they cry, kick and scream...rolling about much like a child avoiding a swat on the butt for whatever they did that was wrong. Death for all is immenent, however, it appaears this man has been living far too good a life, feasting like a king and enjoying his meals and existence at tax payers cost and now, and only now he says he is too obese? Let's see a few weeks ago we gave a man a sex change who had killed his wife, maybe we can give him gastric bypass or the lapband or sleeve so that he is at a healthy weight to die? Wasted news, wasted lives and wasted words from a waste of a human.
You are so right, I saw that on the local news about the wife murderer getting a sex change operation. Wait, is it Medically necessary??? He can stay right where he is and be the best little faggot anyone can imagine. The things one can have if only one is a convicted criminal. This sounds like the good life. "Crime doesn't pay"; who spoke that lie?