Twenty-four hours before a convicted child killer was slated to be put to death, Ohio's governor interjected to delay the execution until July so that the inmate could donate his organs.
Gov. John Kasich granted Ronald Phillips, 40, a stay of execution for nine months on Wednesday to consider his unprecedented request to donate non-vital organs to help save his mother's life. The execution date has been rescheduled for July 2.
"I realize this is a bit of uncharted territory for Ohio, but if another life can be saved by his willingness to donate his organs and tissues then we should allow for that to happen," Kasich said in a statement according to USA Today. He said he wanted to allow time for medical experts to study whether Phillips could donate organs like a kidney, before being executed.
Back in 1993, Phillips was sentenced to death for raping and murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter while he was still a teenager. Earlier this week, he asked to donate a kidney to his mother, who has kidney disease and is on dialysis, and his heart to his sister who suffers from a heart ailment.
If Phillips is found to be a viable donor for his mother or for others awaiting live transplants of non-vital organs, the stay would allow time for those procedures to be performed, said the Republican governor.
Phillips attorney says that he made the decision to be an organ donor in effort to do good, not to delay his execution.
"This was Ron's idea to do this, to try and do something good," Phillips' attorney Timothy Sweeney. "He was fully expecting to be executed Thursday, when he heard the news he said 'God is good.'"
However, a Cleveland defense attorney Dean Valore questioned Phillips' motives.
"I have never heard of a case like this ever before," Valore said. "Defense attorneys for death row inmates will pull any punch they can to try and spare their client the death penalty."
Ohio's prison medical policy accommodates organ donations, but prison officials rejected the request, saying it came too late, reports the Associated Press.