Inmate says he's too fat to be executed

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CLEVELAND, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Attorneys for a convicted killer asked a judge in Cleveland to stay his execution because his morbid obesity would make a deadly injection "cruel and unusual."

Joseph Wilhelm and Rachel Troutman, attorneys for Ronald Post, asked U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells Friday to stop his execution because his weight and poor veins "have a substantial likelihood of causing severe complications with attempts at an intravenous execution," The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Monday.

Post, 53, weighs 480 pounds. He was convicted in 1985 of the 1983 killing of Elyria motel desk clerk Helen Vantz.

"I don't care if they have to wheel him in on a tractor trailer; 30 years is too long," her son, William Vantz, told the newspaper. "Enough is enough. This is just an excuse to get out of the execution."

"Given his unique physical and medical condition there is 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," Wilhelm and Troutman said.

Post is now in a wheelchair at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, where medical personnel have experienced great difficulty locating his veins when trying to treat him, the newspaper said.