For the first time in seven years, news crews were allowed into the Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville where convicted killer Kenneth Biros is set to be the first executed under the state's new lethal injection method.
Biros brutally murdered Tammy Engstrom, 22, near Warren in 1991. Next week will be the first execution attempt in Ohio since the failed execution of Romell Broom in September.
"We experienced rare and exceptional circumstances in attempting to establish a usable IV site on Rommell Broom," said Julie Walburn with the Ohio Department of Corrections.
Because the execution team was unable to find a usable vein on Broom, the state has a new execution procedure.
There will now be a one-drug method that replaces the traditional three drugs.
It relies on a single dose of sodium thiopental injected into a vein. A separate two-drug muscle injection into the inmate's thigh would be used as a backup.
"We reexamined our execution protocol and we were able to address two real issues that we feel will help us carry out our responsibilities under the law," Walburn said.
Ohio is the first in the nation to try both. Officials believe the execution is humane, even though it's never been tried on humans. Because of that, Biros' attorneys filed an appeal Friday, calling the new protocol unconstitutional and experimental.
Still, the sister of Biros' victim said she's confident Biros will be executed Dec. 8.
"They're grasping at straws is what they are doing," said Debi Heiss. "And that just shows you what a coward he is. You'd think by now that he would just stand up and take it like a man and let our family have some closure. you know it's time. It's the end."
The courts are set to decide this week if Biro's execution will continue as planned.
