WARREN - Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is scheduled to be in Columbus today, set to argue against any clemency for local death row inmate Kenneth Biros, scheduled to be executed Dec. 8.
A recommendation either for or against clemency from the Ohio Parole Board that goes to Gov. Ted Strickland is expected within a day or two.
The Ohio attorney general last week filed a motion with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to lift a stay on Biros' execution. A federal judge issued the stay earlier until the state of Ohio develops a new protocol on its lethal injection procedure.
In October, Watkins attended a proceeding that allowed him to view Biros' latest claims in preparation for today's clemency hearing.
Biros was convicted in the 1991 slaying and dismemberment of Tami Engstrom, 22, of Brookfield, after he offered to drive her home from a bar Feb. 7, 1991.
It's the second time that Watkins has argued against sparing Biros' life.
Biros, 51, came close to being executed in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution should be stayed to allow Biros to present initial lethal injection arguments to a panel of federal judges. Since it has been two years, the state requires another clemency hearing to consider any new evidence.
Engstrom's family had traveled to Lucasville to witness Biros' scheduled execution at that point in 2007, only to learn that Biros was getting more time to argue against the penalty.
The stay that Attorney General Richard Cordray wants to eliminate came after the Sept. 15 botched execution of death row inmate Romell Broom, which also was delayed by a federal judge until a back-up or alternative method of lethal injection could be designed.
Strickland postponed until the spring the executions of two other men who were scheduled to die in the months before Biros.