Judge delays next week's execution of cult killer

Jeffery Lundgren joins lawsuit challenging Ohio's use of lethal injection

Star Beacon, Ohio/October 18, 2006
By Margie Trax

Convicted murderer and cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren could live to die another day, after a federal judge delayed Lundgren's Oct. 24 execution date and allowed him to join a lawsuit challenging Ohio's use of lethal injection.

U.S. Rep. Steven LaTourette, the former Lake County prosecutor, called the judge's decision ludicrous.

"The notion that someone can eat their way out of the death penalty and lethal injection is repugnant to decent Americans. If that's the case, perhaps we should shoot (Lundgren) in the head, execution-style, like he did the five members of the Avery family," LaTourette said.

Lundgren was convicted of murdering five members of the Avery family: Dennis Avery, 49; his wife, Cheryl, 46; and their daughters, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, 7.

In 1989, Lundgren headed a small cult and preached altered Mormon scriptures. His followers believed Lundgren was a prophet of Jesus Christ and their faith in him would lead them to eternal glory at Christ's second coming, which was near.

To illustrate his power and his devotion to the will of God, Lundgren accepted the Averys' savings and credit cards, fed them a "last supper" and led the family into a Kirtland barn, where he bound, shot and buried them together, according to Lake County Common Pleas Court testimony given during Lundgren's trial.

Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost allowed Lundgren to join the lawsuit and granted the temporary injunction to delay Lundgren's execution. The lawsuit, which originally was filed by the Ohio Public Defenders Office in 2004, challenges the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection policy, according to a 2004 press release from the Ohio Public Defenders Office.

Frost twice denied Lundgren's attempt to gain inclusion in the lethal-injection challenge suit and have his Oct. 24 execution stayed, according to the Web site www.ohiodeathpenaltyinfo.com.

"This turn of events is particularly unfortunate because Frost knew (Lundgren) didn't file (to be included in the lawsuit) in time," LaTourette said. "That is like saying: 'So what about the law? so what about the rules?'" he said.

Lundgren's time to seek review from the Ohio Supreme Court expired in July, according to Frost's order.

LaTourette said the delay of Lundgren's execution is only temporary and called the former cult leader's chances at further delaying or having his execution repealed "slim to none."

Attorney General Jim Petro will appeal the ruling to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, the Associated Press reports.

"All I can say is that 43 judges looked at this case and came to the same conclusion. This 11th hour business is why people are frustrated with the justice system," LaTourette said. "This case wasn't a close call; Lundgren admitted to killing the Averys," he said.

In the motion filed by Lundgren's attorney Jim Jenkins, Lundgren echoes the claims of the other Death Row inmates involved in the lawsuit, but also claims his problems with obesity and diabetes, and hypertension, put him at greater risk of experiencing "excruciating pain and suffering" in violation of his Eighth Amendment right to be exempt from cruel and unusual punishment.

"If he is so overweight that the injection will hurt him, then they should just up the dose," LaTourette said.