Indiana officials recommended on Friday that a man facing execution next week should not get clemency, a decision that could end his attempt to donate part of his liver to his sister.
Gregory Johnson, 40, had asked for clemency for legal reasons, or a delay in his May 25 execution date so the transplant could take place.
A spokeswoman for the Indiana Parole Board said the panel’s four members voted unanimously to recommend that Johnson be denied clemency. There was no separate vote on a stay, she said.
The final decision on clemency or a stay will be up to Gov. Mitch Daniels who has given the go-ahead to two other executions in the state since taking office earlier this year.
Johnson was sentenced to death for killing an 82-year-old woman during a home break-in in 1985. His 48-year-old sister, Deborah Otis, has said she would like a partial liver transplant from her brother.
Her organ is afflicted with nonalcoholic cirrhosis, though she is not currently on a transplant waiting list because of a temporary medical complication.
During a hearing before the parole board, Johnson’s lawyer said blood tests found his liver would be compatible with his sister.
Johnson contended the lethal injection of chemicals used for executions would poison the organ, making a post-execution transplant impossible. There was disagreement among medical experts on whether that would be the case.
If Johnson donates part of his liver, it could take up to two months for him to recover enough to return to death row.
Transplant requests from death row prisoners in the United States have occurred before, though they are unusual, according to Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
In 1995, a condemned Delaware man donated a kidney to his mother, and returned to death row. In Alabama, a prisoner awaiting execution won permission for an organ donation, but he was not a correct match, Dieter said.
In a Florida case, an inmate was denied a request to donate a kidney to his brother. The condemned man was later exonerated and released from jail, but his brother died waiting for a transplant, Dieter said.
