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Home News Injustice in Ohio Execution delay upsets Lorain County man Execution delay upsets Lorain County man
Sunday, 21 January 2007
Mark Puente
Plain Dealer Reporter
Death-row inmate James Filiaggi did not want Gov. Ted Strickland to delay his execution.
Filiaggi, from Lorain County, was scheduled to die Feb. 13 for killing his ex-wife, Lisa, 13 years ago.
But Strickland on Friday delayed the executions of Filiaggi and two other inmates.
The governor, who took office less than two weeks ago, said he needed more time to sort out clemency requests and claims that the process by which Ohio executes inmates is unconstitutional.
Filiaggi said he had prepared himself mentally to die and did not want his family and friends to be on an emotional roller coaster.
"It takes a lot out of you," he said in a telephone interview from the Mansfield Correctional Institution. "It's like being on a high dive. You get the courage to get up to the top, then they blow the whistle and you can't jump. I don't want to go through the process."
Filiaggi said he has accepted responsibility for his crimes. He shot his ex-wife in January 1994 in Lorain and then drove to Amherst Township and attempted to shoot her stepfather.
He learned of Strickland's decision at 5 p.m. from the prison warden.
His family and friends who visited him this week had emotional visits because they thought it was the last time they would see him alive, Filiaggi said.
"It takes a lot out of them," he said. "The visits were tear-jerkers. It's harder than people think."