COLUMBUS, Ohio – An obese Ohio inmate whose weight became an issue in his death penalty case has died months after being granted clemency.
A state prisons spokeswoman says 53-year-old Ronald Post died Thursday at a prison hospital where he'd been treated on and off since 2011.
Post was sentenced to death for killing Elyria motel clerk Helen Vantz on Dec. 15, 1983. His attorneys sought mercy for Post on grounds that he could not be executed humanely because he weighed 450 pounds.
The governor granted Post clemency in December citing poor legal representation, not his weight.
Spokeswoman Ricky Seyfang says the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction classified the death as "expected." She says privacy laws prevented her from divulging whether Post's weight was a factor in his death.
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