"Bring back the firing squad," a frustrated county prosecutor in Ohio said in frustration over death row appeals following a denied stay of execution request for a convicted murderer, CBS News reported.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters made the remark Thursday in annoyance over complaints that lethal injection drugs did not work effectively or quickly.
"People need to understand. We are killing someone, OK. This is not supposed to be a pleasant experience. They are being executed," Deters said, according to WCMH-TV. "As far as I'm concerned, bring back the firing squad," he added.
Deter was responding specifically to a motion put forth by convicted killer Robert Van Hook, who requested a stay of execution that was denied by Ohio's Supreme Court on July 5 without additional comment, CBS News noted.
Van Hook was sentenced to die for strangling and stabbing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985. He fled to Florida, where he was arrested and confessed.
In June he was denied mercy by The Ohio Parole Board, despite numerous calls to halt his execution.
The board recommended 8-1 against mercy for the death row inmate despite his attorneys citing a history of physical and emotional abuse and untreated mental illness that they say led to him killing a man he picked up at a bar more than 30 years ago.
At the time, the Ohio Supreme Court also announced, without comment, that they will not halt the execution scheduled for July 18, The Forgiveness Foundation said.
Deter's comments come months after a botched execution got an Alabama inmate off death row.
The incident occurred when the prison medical team attempting to place the lethal IV into Doyle Lee Hamm repeatedly and unsuccessfully punctured his body before calling off the execution.
Hamm's attorney called the lethal injection "torture."