State moves an additional 70 death row inmates

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said there were no problems with the move, which happened Wednesday but wasn?t announced for security reasons until Thursday.

The department previously moved 31 of the 194 inmates on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution. The remaining inmates should be moved by year?s end, said department spokeswoman Andrea Dean.

The state proposed the move to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown to save money.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued, arguing the move would deny inmates? due process rights available to other inmates transferred to Youngstown, which serves as a supermaximum security prison for the state?s hardest-to-hold prisoners.

A federal judge rejected the lawsuit Oct. 3, paving the way for the move.

Death row inmates John Spirko and John Hicks, scheduled to die on separate days next month, will remain at Mansfield to avoid being moved twice, Dean said.

The state is investigating the actions of three death row inmates who hurt themselves with self-inflicted cuts earlier this month in an apparent attempt to avoid the move.