Condemned killer won’t appeal judge’s ruling

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COLUMBUS — A lawyer for a condemned killer facing execution Wednesday says the inmate won’t appeal a judge’s ruling rejecting arguments that the state’s three-drug lethal injection process is unconstitutional.

Federal Judge Michael Merz said Friday that inmate Gary Otte still hasn’t proved he would experience pain after being injected with midazolam, the first drug in the process.

Federal public defender Vicki Werneke said Monday that no appeal would be filed. She declined to further comment.

The decision means Otte’s last appeal involves an argument before a state appeals court that he shouldn’t be put to death because at the time of the crime he was only 20.

Otte was sentenced to die for the Feb. 12, 1992, killing of Robert Wasikowski and the Feb. 13, 1992, killing of Sharon Kostura. Both slayings took place in Parma, in suburban Cleveland.

Ohio put the killer of a 3-year-old girl to death in July, the first execution in more than three years after a delay caused by a drug shortage.

Associated Press

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