Motion filed for Biros execution date

An assistant in Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins' office filed a motion Wednesday to set Biros' execution date.

Biros, 49, formerly of Brookfield, has sat on death row since his conviction in the 1991 murder of Tami Engstrom, of Hubbard.

Biros killed Ms. Engstrom on Feb. 8, 1991, after he picked her up in a tavern on Brookfield Avenue in Masury.

Police believe the 22-year-old woman resisted Biros' advances and he killed her and dismembered her body. He then buried, dug up and reburied parts of her body around the Masury area.

An execution scheduled in March 2007 was postponed by appeals, including one that challenged the method used by Ohio and several other states.

Opponents of a three-drug injection used in executions said the method was unconstitutional because its effects were cruel and unusual.

The injection sedates, paralyzes and then kills the inmate. If the initial anesthetic does not take hold, two other drugs can cause excruciating pain. One of those drugs, a paralytic, would render the prisoner unable to express his discomfort.

Some executions in Ohio took much longer than usual, with strong indications that the prisoners suffered severe pain in the process. Workers had trouble inserting the IV lines that are used to deliver the drugs.

The Supreme Court ruled April 16 that the method, which is used in about three dozen states, didn't violate the Eighth Amendment.

Watkins' office filed the motion for an execution date with the Ohio Supreme Court, but didn't specify a particular day.

Biros also has a separate appeal before the 6th Circuit that claims he was not convicted of an offense that merits the death penalty.

He is being held in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

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