COLUMBUS — Condemned killer Jay D. Scott's mental illness is not severe enough to block his execution this Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Friday.

        The 6-1 decision was a near-total victory for state and county prosecutors. They had argued that Mr. Scott's schizophrenia did not keep him from understanding that he would die as punishment for killing Cleveland delicatessen owner Vinnie Prince in 1983.

        “This says, to me anyhow, we were right all along,” said Chris Frey, an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor. “It may be time for justice.”

        Mr. Scott came within an hour of dying on April 17 before the high court halted the execution to consider his insanity appeal. As Lucasville prison guards again prepare for Mr. Scott's execution, his legal team will file a new appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court.

        Attorney Timothy F. Sweeney now hopes the nation's highest court will add the issue of Mr. Scott's sanity to another death penalty case it has agreed to hear.

        Ernest McCarver, a men tally retarded inmate on North Carolina's death row, wants executions of mentally retarded prisoners declared cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.

        If the high court agrees to consider mental illness along with mental retardation, Mr. Scott's execution could be halted a second time. That delay could last for months.

        The Ohio Supreme Court ruling offers strong support for executions of the mentally ill. It supports the state competency standard, which declares a person mentally fit for execution if he understands the nature of the punishment and why it will be applied.

        While a trial court judge ordered a hearing to consider Mr. Scott's sanity, the high court said similar hearings may not be needed in future cases.

        Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justices Andrew Douglas, Alice Robie Resnick, Francis Sweeney, Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Deborah Cook also found no legal connection between Mr. Scott and Mr. McCarver's case.

        “That case has nothing to do with (Mr.) Scott's appeal, since (Mr.) Scott is not and does not claim to be mentally retarded,” the court wrote.

        Justice Cook added a concurring opinion in which she said Mr. Scott's attorneys should nothave been granted an insanity appeal after all of his guaranteed appeals had run out. President George W. Bush this week nominated Justice Cook for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

        Justice Paul E. Pfeiffer offered the high court's only dissenting voice. The justice, who as a lawmaker helped write Ohio's death penalty statute, said executing Mr. Scott would be an affront to society and human dignity.

        “Jay D. Scott is in no other way a sympathetic man. He is a twice-convicted murderer who does not appear to express remorse for his crimes,” Justice Pfeiffer wrote. “But I cannot get past one simple fact: He has chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia, a severe mental illness.

        “I cannot sanction his execution,” he concluded. “I dissent.”

        Though no one disputes that Mr. Scott is mentally ill, Mr. Frey disagreed with Justice Pfeiffer.

        Said Mr. Frey: “I don't see why there should be a protected class of people who should avoid punishment for the crimes they committed.”

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