Inmate chooses electric chair in protest at death penalty

An Ohio prisoner on death row says he'd rather go to the electric chair than be executed by lethal injection.

John W Byrd Jr plans to choose the chair in an attempt to illustrate the brutality of capital punishment.

He is being executed for a fatal stabbing he maintains was committed by an accomplice.

Byrd is scheduled to be executed September 12.

In Ohio, inmates may choose between lethal injection and the electric chair.

Lawyer David Bodiker explained Byrd's rationale.

"What his attitude has been, if they're going to execute him, he should make it as difficult as he possibly can," Bodiker said. "He's not going to go quietly into the night."

Byrd's lawyers have asked authorities to commute the sentence to life imprisonment.

The state Parole Board was expected to make its recommendation to state Governor Bob Taft on Friday.

The 37-year-old Byrd's execution could be Ohio's first electrocution and third execution since 1963. Some 202 men are on death row in the state.

On Tuesday, a state appeals court refused Byrd's request for a hearing into his claim of innocence. The court said Byrd's evidence fell "far short" of that needed to make a claim.