On January 24, 1994, Lisa Huff Filiaggi was murdered, shot in the head by her ex-husband, who also attempted to kill her father. The sentence for this crime was finally carried out today. The governor's decision to deny clemency "has been a huge weight off our minds," said Lisa's mother, Ellen Jane Harris. Although the killer claimed at the last minute that execution by lethal injection would be torture, Mrs. Harris "said this morning she wishes her daughter had died as peacefully as her murderer did," reports Mark Puente in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the sentence in 1999. The Sixth Circuit affirmed denial of federal habeas corpus a year ago. Filiaggi had instructed his attorneys to file no more appeals, but four days ago, he changed his mind and tried to join litigation challenging lethal injection procedures. The Ohio Supreme Court denied a stay yesterday.

Also yesterday, the Federal District Court dismissed with prejudice Filiaggi's belated attempt to join the lethal injection suit. The Prison Litigation Reform Act, enacted in 1996, requires that prisoners exhaust administrative remedies before turning to the federal courts. The Supreme Court confirmed last year in Woodford v. Ngo that if a a prisoner lets his time to file an administrative challenge lapse, he has lost the court suit as well. The district judge in Filiaggi's case held that because of this rule he could not prevail on the merits, and therefore the attempt to intervene was simply for delay. The Sixth Circuit affirmed.