Death Row Man: 'I'm Too Fat To Be Executed'

A death row inmate who weighs at least 34 stone says he is too fat to be executed.

Ronald Post, who shot and killed a hotel clerk in northern Ohio almost 30 years ago, said his weight could lead to a "torturous and lingering death".

Ohio executes inmates with a single dose of pentobarbital, usually injected through the arms.

Court documents submitted by his lawyers said vein access, scar tissue, and other medical problems raise the likelihood that his executioners would encounter severe problems.

It is also claimed he is so big that the execution gurney might not hold him.

"Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death," court papers said.

He has tried losing weight, but knee and back problems have made it difficult to exercise, his lawyers wrote.

His request for gastric bypass surgery has been denied, he has been encouraged not to walk because he is at risk of falling, and severe depression has contributed to his inability to limit how much he eats, his legal team added.

Post, 53, is scheduled to die on January 16 for the 1983 shooting death of Helen Vantz in the town of Elyria.

A spokeswoman for the state's prisons department declined to comment.

Inmates' weight has come up previously in death penalty cases in Ohio and elsewhere.

In 2008, federal courts rejected arguments by 19-stone condemned double-killer Richard Cooey that he was too obese to die by injection.

His lawyers argued that prison food and limited opportunities to exercise contributed to a weight problem that would make it difficult for the execution team to find a suitable vein.

He was executed later that year.