Death Row Inmate in Ohio Commits Suicide

An inmate on Death Row in Ohio committed suicide over the weekend just days before his scheduled execution--not knowing that a new appeal had been filed offering at least a chance for a stay in his execution.  (See my book  on the sad history of capital punishment in the U.S. up to the present day.) 

Werneke said she and Wilhelm prepared an appeal to file with the Ohio Supreme Court seeking to halt the execution based on the new information. McGinty’s office agreed not to oppose the request for a stay, Werneke said. But his attorneys never got to give Slagle the news.

McGinty’s office advocated at his clemency hearing that the killer be given life without the possibility of parole, reasoning that the crime, under today’s law, would not be considered punishable by death.

Slagle hanged himself with an item from his cell, but prison officials wouldn’t say what he used