The Associated Press
CINCINNATI — Attorneys for an Ohio man scheduled to die next week say their client is insane and therefore can’t be executed under state and federal laws that prevent the execution of the insane.
Daniel Bedford, sentenced to death for a 1984 double slaying, can’t remember the killings and suffers from dementia that makes him unable to understand what would be happening to him, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
“Bedford suffers from a severe documented mental illness, coupled with significant intellectual limitations, that prevents him from comprehending the meaning and purpose of the punishment to which he has been sentenced,” the lawsuit said.
Arguments about death row inmates’ insanity have been made before, but the facts in this case involve a mental illness that has developed during Bedford’s times behind bars, said Alphonse Gerhardstein, a defense attorney representing Bedford.
Bedford’s attorneys are asking a Hamilton County judge to block the May 17 execution. Ron Springman, a Hamilton County assistant prosecutor, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that Bedford has been making similar claims for years.
A message seeking further comment left with the prosecutor’s office wasn’t immediately returned.
The Ohio Parole Board has denied a bid to commute Bedford’s sentence because of his alleged mental health problems.
Bedford, 63, was sent to death row for the April 24, 1984, murders of his ex-girlfriend, Gwen Toepfert, 25, and her boyfriend, John Smith, 27, at Toepfert’s apartment in Cincinnati.
Bedford went to Toepfert’s apartment and shot her and her boyfriend while they were sleeping, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s office.