COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio is moving forward with preparations for the execution of a condemned child killer after denying the man's last-minute request to donate organs to his ailing mother and sister before he dies.
Prison officials rejected 40-year-old Ronald Phillips' request this week to give a kidney and his heart to his family members, citing required security precautions in the days leading up to his Thursday execution.
Phillips has said through his attorneys that the request was not a delay tactic, but rather an attempt to make a final gesture for good.
Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith says the department isn't equipped to facilitate organ donation "pre- or post-execution."
Phillips was sentenced to die for the rape and death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Akron in 1993.
