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LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- Ohio has executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer who argued he was too fat to die humanely by lethal injection. Richard Cooey died at 10:28 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. There were no immediate reports of problems finding suitable veins to deliver the deadly chemicals. His attorneys had argued that his weight problem could make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein. A prisons spokeswoman said earlier that Cooey received a pre-execution exam and was cleared. Cooey was the first inmate executed in Ohio in more than a year, and...

Cincinnati, OH (AHN) - The Ohio Supreme Court and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled against staying the execution of an inmate because he is obese. The two courts upheld an earlier ruling of the U.S. The double murder convict argued that lethal injection might not be properly administered to him and might be painful and slow because his physical condition will make it difficult to find a vein where the lethal drug will be injected.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A double murderer scheduled to be executed next month in Ohio said Tuesday he has not deliberately gained weight to rule out his death by lethal injection. Instead, Richard Cooey said in a death row interview that his execution cannot be carried out humanely under current state procedures because his veins are hard to reach. "Vein access was an issue even when I was back in the service," Cooey, 41, said in an hour-long interview with the Associated Press at the Ohio State Penitentiary. Cooey, 5-foot, 7 inches tall and 267 pounds, said he has gained perhaps...

ACKSON — Georgia’s longest-serving death row inmate was executed Tuesday in the slaying of his wife 34 years ago. Jack Alderman was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. The 57-year-old Alderman was sentenced to die by lethal injection in the 1974 slaying of his wife, Barbara. He and an accomplice beat her with a crescent wrench and choked her at their Chatham County home before dumping her body in a creek. Prosecutors allege he wanted to collect $20,000 in life insurance money. Alderman has been on death row for 33 years.

from some good friends: GET READY, GET READY, GET READY!! An Urgent Letter of Warning, Preparation and Promises Dear Friends and Family, (This letter recently came to us from people we trust.. Please read prayerfully and be warned. Be ready! For in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. Matt 24:44 The only thing the NWO people don't know is that the 4 angels of Rev 7 are still holding back the winds...till God's servants are sealed...Nonetheless, it behooves us to be ready. Europe is talking about the imminent US economic collapse which will spread...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. soldiers killed four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots on the bank of a Baghdad canal last year, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Sergeant First Class Joseph P. Mayo, the platoon sergeant, and Sergeant Michael P. Leahy Jr., Company D's senior medic and an acting squad leader, made sworn statements in January to Army investigators in Schweinfurt, Germany probing the incident, the newspaper reported on its website. The men each described killing one of the Iraqi detainees, as directed by First Sergeant John E. Hatley, according to the statements. Hatley shot...

Attorneys for [Jeffery] Wood were in the federal courts this week seeking permission to hire mental health experts to pursue their arguments that Wood is incompetent to be executed tonight. Texas courts have turned down Wood’s appeals. Wood was convicted in the January 1996 slaying of Kriss Keeran, 31, at a Texaco in Kerrville. ...[Daniel] Reneau, Wood’s roommate, was executed in 2002 for shooting Keeran.

Condemned inmate Michael Rodriguez, convicted of taking part in killing a Dallas-area police officer nearly eight years ago while a member of the infamous "Texas 7" gang of escaped fugitives, was executed Thursday. He was the eighth convicted killer executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state and the fourth this month. Another is set for next week.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A twice-convicted killer with a history of violence that continued even after he was sent to death row was executed Tuesday for gunning down two video store workers during a robbery 14 years ago in Dallas. "...See y'all when you get there," Leon David Dorsey IV said in his final statement. "Do what you're going to do." Dorsey was the seventh prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state and the first of two inmates scheduled to die this week. Two more are to die next week.

(Dallas, TX) -- A Dallas killer, one of the most dangerous men on Death Row, will be executed tonight. Leon Dorsey freely admits that he murdered two Blockbuster employees in Dallas during a high-profile 1994 robbery. He shows no remorse over the brutal killings and refuses to apologize. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice keeps Dorsey on its highest lockdown level because of a history of violence and threats. In his eight years on Death Row, Dorsey has amassed nearly 100 infractions including an attack where he stabbed a guard 14 times with a hand-made shank. The guard was saved...

HUNTSVILLE — An illegal immigrant from Honduras who claimed his treaty rights were violated when he was arrested for a robbery-murder near Dallas was executed Thursday evening. "God forgive them, receive my spirit," Heliberto Chi said in English. In Spanish, he told a friend watching through a window that he loved him and appreciated his hard work. He appeared to be whispering a prayer in Spanish with a tear at the corner of his right eye as the lethal drugs began to take effect. One of Chi's cousins, who was among the witnesses, sobbed uncontrollably. Two sons of his victims...

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's judiciary has decided to scrap the punishment of stoning convicts to death in draft legislation submitted to parliament for approval, the local press reported on Wednesday. Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi was also quoted as saying that stoning sentences against several convicts had been suspended, with four commuted to either lashes of the whip or jail terms. "In the latest version of the Islamic penal codes bill, which has undergone several modifications, such punishments are not mentioned," Jamshidi said, the reformist Etemad newspaper reported, referring to both stoning and amputation.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Lawyers for three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings lodged a legal challenge on Wednesday over Indonesia's method of executing convicts by firing squad, calling it inhumane. The three men -- Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron -- face a firing squad for their roles in the nightclub bombings on the island of Bali that killed 202 people. "We believe that execution by way of a gunfire is inhumane. It is for these reasons that the defense attorneys are applying to challenge the legislation," said lawyer Wirawan Adnan, adding...

A Mexican-born convicted rapist and murderer was executed Tuesday. Jose Medellin was killed by lethal injection in a Texas prison for the rape, torture and murder of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena and 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman. “I’m sorry my actions caused you pain. I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate,” Medellin said to the group who had gathered to watch him die. He was pronounced dead at 9:57 p.m. Medellin, 33, was convicted in the 1993 gang rape, beating and murder of Pena and Ertman. He and five fellow gang members attacked the girls as they...

Medellin executed for rape, murder of Houston teens By ALLAN TURNER and ROSANNA RUIZ Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Aug. 6, 2008, 12:36AM Comments Recommend 1 2 3 Texas Department of Criminal Justice Jose Medellin's case created international controversy when the United Nations' world court determined Texas had violated the killer's rights under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Share Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzHUNTSVILLE — The state of Texas defied an international court and executed Jose Ernesto Medellin late Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for the killer in the 1993 Houston gang rape-murders of...

HOUSTON — In a case that has drawn international attention, Texas executed José E. Medellín on Tuesday night in defiance of an international court ruling and despite pleas from the Bush administration for a new hearing. The execution came just before 10 p.m. Central time, shortly after the United States Supreme Court denied a last request for a reprieve. Protesters for and against the death penalty clamored in the rain outside the Huntsville Unit, about 70 miles north of Houston, where Mr. Medellín was executed by lethal injection. “I’m sorry my actions caused you pain,” he said to the witnesses...

Medellin Execute For Rape, Murder of Houston Teens Link Only

After backing the sovereignty of the state of Texas and rejecting international meddling, the US Supreme Court’s consideration of a last-ditch appeal has put illegal alien rapist/double murderer Jose Medellin’s scheduled execution tonight on hold. Stay tuned for late-breaking developments.

The state of Texas urged the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to go ahead on Tuesday with the execution of Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin, arguing that he has several times received all of the review of his case that American or international law requires. But, the state added, if there are other foreign nationals in Texas who have not had the same review of their treaty-based claims, the state will join in to make sure that it happens. Medellin’s lawyers have asked Justice Antonin Scalia, as Circuit Justice for the area that includes Texas, to postpone his...

Southern states execute two killers HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Texas executed a man Wednesday who was convicted of killing a woman and her child, while Mississippi put to death a man who took part in the fatal beating of another man. Derrick Sonnier shook his head "no" when asked if he had any final statements. he was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal dose was administered. Sonnier was convicted of murdering Melody Flowers, 27, and her 2-year-old son, Patrick, in their Houston apartment in 1991. Flowers was raped, stabbed, strangled and beaten with a hammer until...