Posted on 12/24/2006 10:19:25 AM PST by Graybeard58
Columbus -- Out of appeals and closer to their scheduled executions, several Ohio death row inmates are finding a reprieve by complaining about the way they would be executed.
Over the past year, six death-row inmates have been allowed to join a 2004 lawsuit brought by another inmate that challenges whether lethal injection is a painless way to die or is essentially death by torture.
The lawsuit and how judges are deciding which inmates live long enough to make their case in court is stirring controversy -- leading some to call for a moratorium on executions.
Similar lawsuits are pending in 13 other states, a few of which have been forced by courts to suspend executions until the matter is resolved. But not Ohio, where confusing signals from two different courts haven't stopped the state from carrying out death sentences.
"Certainly there is enough evidence to question the lethal-injection protocol," said Greg Meyers of the Ohio public defender's office. "So I don't know why no one would want to stop the machinery of death long enough to make sure that we aren't torturing people to death."
Gov. Bob Taft, who has authority to wave off an execution, is aware of the lawsuit but "the law is the law, and he intends to follow it at this point," said the governor's spokesman, Mark Rickel.
Governor-elect Ted Strickland, who takes office next month, has not yet reviewed the issue, a spokesman said.
Boiling to the top of the controversy is the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' handling of the last two scheduled executions, which baffled not only state officials who enforce the death penalty, but also inmate attorneys fighting it and judges alike.
Jeffrey Lundgren, the notorious Lake County cult killer, and Jerome Henderson, convicted of raping and murdering a Cincinnati woman, were set to die about six weeks apart. Then, on the eve of their executions, each was allowed to join the lawsuit.
In light of that, a U.S. District judge post poned Lund gren's execu tion but was overturned with little ex planation by the 6th Circuit appeals court in Cincinnati. Lundgren was executed Oct. 24.
Following the lead of the appeals court, the lower-court judge felt obligated to refuse Henderson a stay of his Dec. 5 execution. He had eaten his last meal when the federal appeals court that let Lundgren die again reversed the district judge and allowed Henderson to live.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost, upstaged twice by the appeals court, expressed his frustrations with a razor-sharp tongue in a decision denying another inmate, John Spirko, a stay of his April execution date after the inmate joined the lawsuit.
"Certainly, Henderson will not complain about the inconsistency, but Lundgren . . . would no doubt have been interested in the Henderson panel's unexpressed rationale," Frost wrote.
"Such a lack of clarity is most troubling because when our system of law includes unexplained decision making," Frost wrote, "it loses the legitimacy that must guide the state-sanctioned taking of any human life."
The district court's Spirko ruling, meanwhile, has been sent to the 6th Circuit court. Meanwhile, Frost on Thursday granted a stay for Kenneth Biros, who is set to die Jan. 23.
To date, seven death-row inmates are officially plaintiffs in the lawsuit and have won a stay of execution, delayed the setting of an execution date or requested a stay.
Like Lundgren, John Hicks joined the lawsuit, but he was executed in November 2005.
"I find that confusing -- that some inmates have been allowed a stay and others have not," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. "It just seems like an arbitrary way of doing it."
Heather Gosslin, senior deputy for capital crimes at the Ohio attorney general's office, said: "We are just as puzzled as Judge Frost is."
"It's frustrating for everybody because nobody knows what is going on," said Columbus defense attorney David Stebbins, who represents Spirko. "The law is supposed to give you some guidance. The upper court is supposed to give you guidance. And that is not happening."
Before the Lundgren and Henderson enigma, the primary issue regarding the lawsuit was whether it was filed on time.
Gosslin, from the Ohio attorney general's office, contends the lawsuit was not filed within the required two-year statute of limitations. She argues the two-year window started closing either in 1993, when lethal injection became an execution option; in 2001, when it became the only option; or in 2002, when the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction outlined its lethal-injection procedures.
Meyers, from the public defender's office, disagrees. He believes the two-year period starts either when an inmate has exhausted his final federal appeal or when the Ohio Supreme Court sets an execution date.
The district court has ruled in favor of allowing the lawsuit, brought by inmate Richard Cooey, to proceed. But the case is now before the same 6th Circuit court that has left everyone guessing thus far. A ruling is expected soon.
Cooey, who tried to escape from prison in 2005, has been on death row for 20 years for the murders of two University of Akron students. He is represented in the lawsuit by Meyers.
The complaint contends that, based on medical research, the three-drug concoction used for lethal injection paralyzes the inmate but does not numb the pain, leading to a quiet, excruciating death, Meyers said.
Thirty-seven other states have a death penalty, and all but Nebraska, which uses the electric chair, have lethal injection.
The botched execution of Joseph Clark in May, when the death squad could not find a vein in his arm to feed the drugs through, forced Ohio to revise its lethal-injection procedures.
And a problematic Florida execution this month, where officials took nearly three times longer than usual to put to death an inmate who appeared to be grimacing, offered more fodder for lethal-injection opponents.
"I seriously don't think any of this will end the death penalty," said Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center. "But it may delay things temporarily just to make sure that justice is applied uniformly."
I think that killing them the same way they killed their victims would not be cruel.
What's taking so long, get on with it.
If I ever do anything worthy of the book ... this is what I want.
Whiny, disgusting murdering pigs. Strip them of their skin, and spray them with acid.
Their victims didn't deserve their pain; but these worms do.
The "cruel" part is making the convicted hang out with public defender lawyers for decades on end, who give them the faint hope that their cases can be overturned.
I had my old Black Lab put down last fall. First he gave her a shot of something to make her sleepy. That took about a minute. She even snored, LOL! Then, they gave her the shot that stopped her heart. Most peaceful thing I've ever seen, though I miss her greatly.
I think we need Veterinarian Students on the case, because that's what I used to have my Cinder put down, quickly and humanely. And Cinder had a heart of gold that I would've given anything not have had to stop, versus these merciless scumbags.
I did some research on the case. This is from an anti-death penalty site.
America (Ohio): Death penalty, Richard Wade Cooey
PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/101/2003
EXTRA 36/03 Death penalty 11 July 2003
USA (Ohio) Richard Wade Cooey (m), white, aged 36
Richard Cooey is scheduled to be executed in Ohio on 24 July 2003. He was
sentenced to death in December 1986 for the murders of Dawn McCreery and Wendy
Offredo, aged 20 and 21 respectively, committed in August of that year in
Akron, Ohio.
According to the trial record, on 31 August 1986, 17-year-old Clint Dickens
dropped a chunk of concrete off a bridge, hitting a car beneath. He and his two
friends, 19-year-old Richard Cooey and 18-year-old Kenneth Horonetz, then
offered a ride to the occupants of the car, Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery, so
that they could call for help. They drove them to a nearby mall where Wendy
Offredo called her mother, and Richard Cooey gave the mother directions to pick
up the women. Dawn McCreery called the police. The five then got back in Cooey’
s car to drive back to the damaged vehicle. Richard Cooey and Clint Dickens had
decided to rob the women, and Kenneth Horonetz jumped out of the car when the
robbery began. The women were driven to an isolated wooded area, where they
were subsequently murdered by blows to the head.
After a two-day trial in November 1986 in front of a panel of three judges,
Richard Cooey was convicted of kidnapping, rape, robbery and murder. After a
sentencing phase which began and ended on 5 December 1986, he was condemned him
to death. Clint Dickens received a life sentence, being too young for the death
penalty under Ohio law. He will not be eligible for parole until 2082.
Richard Cooey’s clemency petition seeks commutation of the death sentence on
the grounds of his efforts towards rehabilitation during his more than 16 years
on death row. It details how, in the structured environment of prison, he has
matured into a 36-year-old adult who is remorseful for the crime and has
accepted responsibility for his role in the deaths of Wendy Offredo and Dawn
McCreery.
At the time of the crime, Richard Cooey was a teenager emerging from a
childhood of parental abuse and neglect. According to the clemency petition,
when Richard was a young child, his father adopted a toilet training regime
that included shoving the child’s head into the toilet or rubbing the child’s
face in his own faeces. The father, who abused drugs and alcohol, allegedly
used to hit the boy in the face without provocation or warning, and would beat
him with a belt and his hands, sometimes to the point of drawing blood. Richard
Cooey’s mother also developed a drinking problem. The boy began drinking
alcohol from the age of five. By the age of 12, he was using marijuana, speed,
and/or opiates on a daily basis. At the time of the crime in August 1986, two
months past the age of 19, Richard Cooey was on a month’s leave from the army,
and had engaged in a three week drinking and drug binge. On the day of the
murders, he had consumed marijuana, beer, cocaine and opium with his two
friends.
At a clemency hearing on 8 July 2003 before the Ohio Parole Board, prosecutors
and relatives of the murdered women urged the Board to allow the execution to
go forward. Family and friends of Richard Cooey appealed for him to be allowed
to live. The Board’s recommendation is not binding on the Governor.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally.
Every death sentence is an affront to human dignity, every execution a symptom
of, not a solution to, a culture of violence. The death penalty has not been
shown to have a special deterrent effect and extends the suffering of one
family, that of the murder victim, to another, that of the condemned prisoner.
It denies the possibility of rehabilitation and reconciliation.
Today, 112 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. The USA, a country
whose government frequently claims it is the global human rights champion, has
carried out 864 executions since resuming judicial killing in 1977. The vast
majority of these killings have taken place in the past decade, and include 44
so far this year.
AI Index: AMR 51/101/2003 11 July 2003
It's hard to give a rats a$$ whether or not these scum feel anything before their meeting with the great beyond...
I think that killing them the same way they killed their victims would not be cruel.
_________________________________________________________
If possible; how about the execution also taking place where they commited their crime? This would bring justice and closure.
:-o
I LIKE THAT IDEA!! Especially if you haul it out AFTER their skin's been peeled.
:-)
These lawsuits are getting annoying.
Maybe they should just ask the the perp how he would like to die at the prescribed time.
Uh, actually not executing those who wrongfully take an innocent life is an affront to human dignity. Leting a murderer live diminishes the value of the life that was taken and thus the value of all of our lives.
Gee, I wonder if their victims cries were ever heard in such a way?
It denies the possibility of rehabilitation and reconciliation.
This is a crock of CRAP!!!!
I was living in Kansas when Stephine Smith was Raped, Sodomized, and killed.
The person that did it, did so because he knew there was NO DEATH Penalty in Kansas, he asked for and received the 'Hard 40', 40 years without Parole.
If there would have been, this young woman would be alive today.
I can guarantee that if this animal had been executed, there is a 100% chance he would never do that to anyone again.
I say bring back Public Hangings, let'em swing for a couple of days until they start to stink, cut 'em down and call the family to come bury him!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.