Lawrence Reynolds, Jr., age 43, was sentenced to death for killing his neighbor in 1994. Late last Sunday night he was found unconscious, hours before he was to be executed. How he got the pills and tried to overdose in his death row cell at Ohio State Penitentiary is not known. Governor Ted Strickland has now postponed the execution.
I don’t have much more facts than this, it was a small item in the L.A. Times, but if I did would the postponement of this execution look any less perverse? If he was scheduled to die, in this case a few hours hence, why not let him? Why rescue him only to execute him? Whether or not that’s legally permissible, it’s cruel, unnecessary and reflects our culture’s need for punishment at all costs. Will justice be better served now that he has to die by execution when her recovers?