Kenneth Biros’ execution date is set for Tuesday. While a stay of execution — or a new battery of litigation from his defense — could delay that date, Gov. Ted Strickland will not.

“The governor has denied clemency to Kenneth Biros,” Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said Friday.

Biros murdered, robbed and dismembered Tami Engstrom, 22, of Hubbard in 1991 after offering to take her out for coffee from a Brookfield bar.

Strickland had granted a reprieve to Biros when he took office in January so that he could review the case, since Biros’ execution date had been set for Jan. 23.

Debbie Heiss, Ms. Engstrom’s sister, said the family is preparing for Tuesday’s execution. She said the family understood Strickland’s need to review the case, and commended him on his decision.

John Parker, Biros’ defense attorney, said he was disappointed by the governor’s decision. “We were hoping our governor would file a suit and not risk having an unconstitutional execution.”

He said some states had stopped their executions pending the result of a challenge to lethal injection’s constitutionality. North Carolina, Maryland, California and Missouri have put them on hold, Parker said.

Biros’ execution is still stayed as a result of a challenge to the lethal injection execution method in Ohio. A spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann’s office, Leo Jennings, said there is a motion to vacate that stay, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit may hear before Tuesday.

Parker said the defense on Friday also filed for another stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court. Parker said the stay was meant to give the court time to hear a case that was filed on March 6.

The case Parker wants heard, he said, argues that one of the prior appeals Biros was denied had relied on another court case in its decision. That other case, he said, has since been declared unconstitutional.

Watkins said Biros’ defense was re-litigating issues that had already been addressed. “It’s just absolutely wrong that at the last minute we’re getting these frivolous lawsuits to obstruct justice. I mean, how many times do you have to review something?”

Parker denied anything frivolous about their case, and said, “We’re just trying to pursue all legal remedies that are available.”

Parker said he had spoken to Biros on Friday. “He’s holding up,” Parker said. “He’s hopeful the Sixth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court will give him an opportunity to litigate these important issues.”