Judge throws out lawsuit over televised execution

COLUMBUS - A judge refused to delay Friday's execution of convicted killer Alton Coleman, despite his lawyers' arguments that a closed-circuit transmission would turn his death into a "spectator sport."

Coleman's lawyers were considering appealing the decision and also yesterday asked a federal appeals court to delay the execution.

Coleman, of Waukegan, Ill., is scheduled to die Friday by injection for the 1984 beating death of Marlene Walters, 44, of Norwood in suburban Cincinnati. He also has been convicted of four murders that occurred during a multistate crime spree in 1984 and has been sentenced to death in Indiana and Illinois.

In addition to a potential appeal of the closed-circuit transmission decision, Coleman currently has two appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court and a third before a federal appeals court in Cincinnati.

Judge Beverly Pfeiffer of Franklin County Common Pleas Court yesterday threw out a lawsuit that sought to prevent the state from televising Coleman's scheduled execution to relatives of his victims.

Because there are so many witnesses from victims' families, the state plans to let them watch Coleman's execution from a closed-circuit television in a room of the prison where he will be executed.

Pfeiffer said Coleman's lawyers presented no evidence to justify their claim that broadcasting the execution on closed-circuit television would violate his rights.

"The judge has sanctioned Mr. Coleman's execution to being a spectator sport," said Lori Leon, an attorney representing Coleman.