Beuke appeal denied

Michael Beuke's motion for a restraining order from the Ohio Southern District Court, again stopping his execution tomorrow morning, was denied yesterday. ( Court's order )

Responding to the State's memorandum in opposition to Beuke's appeal, which raised the potentially threshold issue of whether Beuke had waited too long to request injunctive relief, it was posited that because the State of Ohio modified its execution procedures in November 2009– which defendants mis-identified as "November 30, 2010" – Beuke's waiting until only one week prior to his execution to seek injunctive relief constituted unnecessary delay. "Certainly, Beuke could have and should have pursued injunctive relief earlier than he did," the Court said. "A more diligent approach would have enabled the parties and this Court to approach today's issues without the time constraints confronting all involved. This Court declines to consider whether the inexplicable delay in the filing of Beuke's motion might prove dispositive of the weighty issues involved in today's inquiry, however, because an alternative non-procedural ground proves dispositive."

An interesting aside was an Associated Press article this morning reporting that "a worldwide shortage of the anesthetic used in lethal injections almost kept Ohio from proceeding with an execution scheduled for Thursday."