Ronald Ray "Ron" Phillips was an Ohio death row inmate who was sentenced to death and executed for the 1993 rape and murder of Sheila Evans, the 3-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, Fae Amanda Evans, after an extended period of physical and sexual abuse against the child. Fae Evans was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangering for her involvement and sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison. She died of leukemia on July 8, 2008, aged 41, at the state prison hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
Background
Phillips was born on October 10, 1973, in Akron, Ohio, the fifth of seven children to William D. Phillips Sr. and Donna M. Phillips. His childhood nickname was "Bubby". Ron Phillips allegedly suffered a traumatic childhood which involved mental illness and physical and sexual abuse by his father, mainly, and cousin.
Issues with Ohio's executions
Phillips is also notable for how drawn out his case was. He spent over half of his life on death row since he was sentenced on September 16, 1993, and he had a total of 9 execution dates set between November 2013 and July 2017. His first execution date of November 14, 2013 was stayed to consider his request to donate his non-vital organs before his execution, a request which was later denied on the grounds that he would not have enough time to recover before his new execution date of July 2, 2014. Several execution dates were set and stayed for not only Phillips, but several other inmates, as a result of questions regarding the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection protocol, as well as whether Ohio had access to execution drugs. A group of inmates, consisting of Phillips, Gary Otte, and Raymond Tibbetts, challenged Ohio's execution protocol and thus a federal judge granted them a preliminary injunction on January 26, 2017. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 8–6 in favour of the State of Ohio on June 28, 2017. The US Supreme Court has not, as of February 2018, commented or voted on the ruling. Otte was executed in September 2017, while Governor John Kasich commuted Tibbetts’ sentence to life without parole in July 2018.
Execution
In an order published by Ohio Governor John Kasich on May 1, 2017, Phillips' execution was rescheduled from May 10, 2017, to July 26, 2017. Following the approval of Ohio's lethal injection protocol four weeks prior to the execution date, Phillips' attorneys filed a flurry of appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States, all of which were denied. Governor Kasich also refused to call off the execution, following a unanimous recommendation against clemency by the Ohio Parole Board. A day before his execution, he had a last meal of a large cheese, bell pepper and mushroom pizza, strawberry cheesecake, a piece of unleavened bread, a Pepsi, and grape juice. He reportedly used the unleavened bread and grape juice for the sake of a makeshift communion shortly before his execution. Ronald Phillips was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, ending a 3-and-a-half year hiatus on executions in Ohio.
