LaTourette to head for site of execution

Lundgren's death on hold, but could still happen Tuesday if ruling comes in lawsuit

News Herald (OH)/October 21, 2006
By Sandra M. Klepach

The congressman who spent two years of his life prosecuting convicted cult killer Jeffrey Lundgren will start his six-hour drive to the site of Lundgren's execution Monday afternoon - even as the execution remains on hold.

U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Concord Township, announced plans Friday to begin his trek to Lucasville while waiting for a decision that could ultimately cancel the lethal injection originally scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Lundgren, 56, was allowed to join a class-action lawsuit in the 6th District Court of Appeals earlier this week that delayed his execution.

The lawsuit, filed by five other inmates, argues that lethal injection is a form of cruel and unusual punishment - a form Lundgren said could be even more painful because he is overweight and diabetic.

LaTourette, who quickly slammed the delay as "ludicrous," said he heard Friday that the court expects to issue its ruling Monday and that a similar case decided by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ended in an execution proceeding as scheduled.

So after a scheduled tour of the control tower at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, LaTourette said he will be "getting in the car, starting to drive, and if it's not going forward, I'll stop at a rest area, buy a Coke and turn around.

"It is important that I be there. The case took two years of my life, took two years of the lives of the people who worked for me, and it certainly took more than that for the Avery family."

State Attorney General Jim Petro has also asked the court to overrule the delay.

Lundgren was convicted of killing five members of the Avery family in 1989, including three children, as they stood in a pit dug inside his barn in Kirtland.

LaTourette, who is running for reelection Nov. 7, said members of the Avery family asked to meet with him before they witness the execution together.

"We've been advised to be at the prison at 8 a.m. in the morning of the 24th," he said. "I owe them that, and I'm going to do it."