COLUMBUS – A convicted child killer was executed Wednesday morning, Ohio’s first execution on more than three years following a prolonged search for lethal drugs.
Ronal Phillips was pronounced dead at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville at 10:43 a.m., Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said in a statement.
Phillips, 43, was convicted for the 1993 rape and killing of Sheila Marie Evans, his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter.
He and other death row inmates have challenged the state’s new three-drug execution method, which includes a sedative used in some problematic executions in Ohio and elsewhere. Phillips had requested a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court to continue legal appeals. Late Tuesday night, justices denied his requests.
Phillips’ attorneys call the case tragic, but say he wasn’t one of the worst offenders.
The county prosecutor says it’s time for justice to be served.
Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of the 1991 murder and kidnapping of a 10-year-old Ohio girl whose body was found in Indiana.
The court voted 5-2 Tuesday to reject Jeffrey Wogenstahl’s claim that a Hamilton County court in southwest Ohio didn’t have jurisdiction to try him. The majority opinion says Ohio has jurisdiction over Amber Garrett’s death even though it couldn’t be determined where she was killed.
The opinion says Ohio can claim jurisdiction if the fatal blow was struck in Ohio, even if the Harrison, Ohio, girl died in Indiana. Her beaten and stabbed body was found in Bright, Indiana.