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Frazier in court prior to his sentencing in Lucas County Courthouse in June, 2005.
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Execution date set for man convicted in '04 Toledo murder

THE BLADE

Execution date set for man convicted in '04 Toledo murder

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court, in a 5-2 vote, today set a date for the execution of James P. Frazier, convicted in the 2004 murder of a woman with disabilities in a robbery for money to refuel a crack cocaine party.

That execution, however, won’t occur until Oct. 17, 2019, as the line for lethal injection gurney in Ohio continues to back up as the state struggles to find the drugs it would prefer to use. The first execution in that line is set for January once Gov. John Kasich’s current moratorium on the death penalty expires.

Frazier is on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. He was convicted of killing Mary Stevenson in the Northgate Apartments in North Toledo where Frazier was attending the party. Ms. Stevenson had cerebral palsy. Frazier strangled her and slit her throat before making away with her purse.

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“Every court that has examined defendant’s claims has upheld his murder conviction and his death sentence,” reads the motion from Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates’ office urging the state Supreme Court to set an execution date.

“Defendant has now completed all state and federal litigation,” it wrote.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his latest appeal on June 22, 2015.

Ohio Supreme Court Justices Paul Pfeifer and William O’Neill dissented in setting a date. They questioned why the court continues to set execution dates when there’s no sign yet one will be carried out.

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“At this time, the state is incapable of properly executing the 25 people for whom execution dates have previously been set,” Justice Pfeifer wrote. “ It serves no rational purpose for this court to continue to set execution dates while significant logistical obstacles remain in place and more legal challenges are likely.”

Justice O’Neill joined in his dissent.

Frazier faces lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The state is tentatively set to resume carrying out executions on Jan. 12, 2017 with that of Ronald Phillips, of Summit County.

Ohio last executed an inmate in January, 2014 when it used for a single time the combo of the sedative midazolam and morphine derivative hydromorphone. The inmate, Dennis McGuire, died, but witnesses described him first as making choking sounds and struggling against his restraints for 26 minutes after the drugs began to flow.

The state soon abandoned its use of that drug combo and said it would revert to using either pentobarbital or sodium thiopental as single drugs. But the domestic and European makers of those drugs refuse to make them available to governments for use in executions.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has been unable so far to convince the federal government to allow it import the drugs for that purpose.

First Published February 19, 2016, 3:32 p.m.

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Frazier in court prior to his sentencing in Lucas County Courthouse in June, 2005.  (THE BLADE)  Buy Image
Frazier  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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