LUCASVILLE, Ohio — A Trumbull County man became the first person in American history executed using a single drug instead of a three-drug cocktail.

Kenneth Biros, 51, was pronounced dead today at 11:47 a.m. after being lethally injected in his arms with a single massive dose of barbiturates in the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

The single drug is similar to what is used by veterinarians to euthanize animals.

Ohio prison officials had announced a new execution procedure, including the single-drug protocol on Nov. 13, following a brief moratorium ordered by Gov. Ted Strickland.

The convicted killer from the Youngstown-area became the 33rd person put to death in Ohio since executions resumed in 1999. The state’s unprecedented use of a single drug to kill Biros has thrust Ohio’s new execution procedures into the national spotlight as supporters and opponents of capital punishment closely monitor the newest wrinkle to lethal-injection procedures.

The three-drug method was also the source of several lawsuits claiming Ohio’s procedures were cruel and unusual because inmates could feel pain while being sedated, paralyzed and killed by the drugs.

Biros was convicted for the 1991 murder of Tami Engstrom, a 22-year-old woman that he severely beat, strangled and then dismembered after promising her a ride home from a bar. Biros had confessed to killing Engstrom, but he said he suffocated her after she hit her head trying to flee his car.

Biros was supposed to be executed on March 20, 2007, but he never made it past the holding cell adjacent to the death chamber at Lucasville because of a U.S. Supreme Court order that stayed his execution.

It was a different story today as Biros’ attorney, Tim Sweeney, was unable to sway federal courts to block the execution with an argument that the state was experimenting on his client with the newly established procedures.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/12/biros_becomes_first_inmate_exe.html