Inmate granted stay of execution by Ohio Supreme Court
Neyland, convicted of 2 deaths in 2007, allowed to pursue all appeals options
6/3/2014COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court today stayed the scheduled execution of Calvin C. Neyland, Jr. in the shooting deaths of two co-workers at a Perrysburg Township trucking company in 2007.
The court had scheduled the execution for Oct. 19, 2016, but Neyland, 50, still has federal appeals he can pursue. The stay will continue until all appeals are exhausted. The state Supreme Court upheld his convictions and death sentence last month by a vote of 5-2.
Neyland has admitted to shooting Douglas Smith, 44, of Sylvania Township, branch manager for Liberty Transportation, and Thomas Lazar, 58, of Belle Vernon, Pa., the company's corporate safety director and a former Pennsylvania state trooper, during a meeting in which Neyland was about to be fired because of his erratic behavior.
Neyland, however, has maintained that he was mentally ill at the time. He remains Wood County's sole resident of death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution.