toledoblade.com --

LUCASVILLE, Ohio - A man executed yesterday for killing a cellmate chatted and laughed with prison staff as they struggled to find veins in his arm to deliver the deadly chemicals, taking so long that at one point he was given a bathroom break.

Christopher Newton, who had insisted on the death penalty as punishment for choking and beating the cellmate after arguing over a chess game, died at 11:53 a.m., nearly two hours after the scheduled start of his execution.

The execution team stuck him at least 10 times with needles to get in place the shunts where chemicals are injected.

It was the longest delay since the state resumed executions in 1999 and the second time in little more than a year that prison staff had trouble inserting shunts.

When Newton was moved from his holding cell and strapped to a table in the death chamber, he made a short statement: "Yes, boy, I could sure go for some beef stew and a chicken bone. That's it."

Prison officials said the difficulty prison staff had finding Newton's veins resulted from the girth of the 265-pound, 6-foot inmate.

Fifty-three minutes into the process, prisons spokesman Andrea Dean flashed a note to reporters: "We have told the team to take their time. His size is creating a problem."

Gov. Ted Strickland said every precaution was taken to make sure Newton was treated respectfully and was not in pain.

"The procedure worked as it was intended to work," he said. "If someone is against the death penalty then I can understand why they would want me to have a moratorium on the death penalty, but I think what happened today is not any supporting justification for that."

State prisons director Terry Collins said the time the execution took resulted from more forgiving timetables he allowed after last year's problems with the execution of Joseph Clark.

Clark died 90 minutes after his set execution time because prison staff had trouble finding a vein in the drug user's arm. Executions typically take about 20 minutes.

A group of Ohio inmates is suing over the injection method, saying it is unconstitutionally cruel, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio called on the state to stop executions because of problems.

In a statement read by public defender Robert Lowe after Newton's death, Newton apologized to the family of victim Jason Brewer. Newton knew killing Brewer at the Mansfield Correctional Institution in 2001 was a capital crime. He refused to cooperate with investigators unless they sought the death penalty against him, court documents said. Brewer had been convicted for attempted burglary in Lucas County.

Meanwhile, Toledo attorney Alan Konop said Clark's estate will file a federal lawsuit next month arguing that similar problems with his May 2, 2006, execution constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." Evidence from Newton's execution could be used to support the suit, he said. "It appears they were dealing with the same issue," said Mr. Konop. "They couldn't find veins."

In Clark's case, the execution took nearly an hour and a half to complete as the execution team struggled to insert shunts through which the drugs could flow. The execution was stopped when an apparently frustrated Clark, 57, raised his head and repeatedly said, "It don't work."

The team closed the curtain, but witnesses could hear Clark's moans and groans for several minutes before veins were found and the execution resumed.

Saying he believes this may be the first time that the cruel-and-unusual argument is used in a civil case rather than a criminal appeal, Mr. Konop will seek monetary damages for pain, suffering, and emotional distress for the estate of Clark, who was executed for the 1984 robbery-murder of David A. Manning in Toledo.

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