14 DAY TRIAL // Ronald Post, an Ohio death row inmate making headlines for his claim that an execution would be inhumane, being as he is obese, is now claiming he is innocent.
Post was convicted 30 years ago for the murder of hotel clerk Helen Vantz in Elyria, Ohio. The prisoner, who weighs 400 pounds (181 kg), addressed the court in an effort to delay his execution, scheduled for January 16 next year.
He is now claiming he wasn't in the Slumber Inn the day the murder occurred in 1983, however he did intend to rob the place.
On November 20, he stated in front of a parole board that he and other two men had plotted to commit robbery, yet he ended up not participating. Huffington Post quotes his attorney saying he only found out about the fact that they went through with it from the newspaper, in a 1984 statement.
“[He] stated that it wasn't until the next day when he read in the papers about the murder, did he realize that they had been serious,” it reads.
Post's last claim to delay execution was based on the fact that his would be a “torturous and lingering death.” Apart from that, the execution gurney would not hold him, his defense attorney added.
As we reported earlier today, his obesity defense was thrown out by a federal judge in Cleveland.
“Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death,” defense attorney Rachel Troutman stated at the time, as CBS News informed.
Another argument brought to the court's attention was that the prosecution's case was based on seven unreliable witness accounts.
Post allegedly boasted he was Vantz's killer to several people, Northern Ohio Morning Journal writes. Also, in 1984, he admitted to the crime, in writing, Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will says.