State could still see 2nd-highest number of executions

Herman Dale Ashworth, convicted of luring a man into an alley where he beat him to death in 1996 for $40, said Tuesday he deserved to die.

"A life for a life, let it be done and justice will be served," Ashworth, 32, said in his final statement before being executed by injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for the killing of Daniel Baker.

Ashworth became the fourth death row inmate in Ohio since 1999 to drop his appeals to speed his death sentence.

He refused to try any appeals so his adoptive parents could make the trip from his native state, hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, to visit him before his execution.

Including Ashworth, the state could execute four people this year, 2nd to last year's total of 7, which also was the 2nd-highest in the nation after Texas.

Next month, a Youngstown killer of 4 is scheduled to die, and in November a man who says he's innocent of killing a northwest Ohio postmistress in a 1982 robbery faces execution.

The state executed William Smith of Cincinnati in March for a 1987 rape and murder of a 47-year-old Cincinnati woman.

The 6-foot-4 Ashworth breathed calmly as the execution started, then shook before his breaths became more shallow and rapid. Soon he was motionless, his white Adidas hightops hanging off the gurney's edge.

He was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m.

3 witnesses for the state, including Samuel Overly, the husband of Baker's niece, Tangee Overly, sat largely motionless in one room. Ashworth had no witnesses on his behalf.

"I can't lie and say that I'm sorry that this conclusion happened because I'm not," said Tangee Overly, who waited in the prison during the execution. "Dan was very brutally murdered."

Carol Wright, a lawyer who served as Ashworth's standby attorney after he had her and another attorney removed as his legal counsel, described Ashworth as having been at peace in the hours preceding the execution with his choice not to appeal.

"He was very resolute. I think he felt good. I think he was very certain of his decision and pleased that it was finally happening," she said.

Ashworth and Baker, who had never met before, had a few drinks and were walking to a bar in Newark when Ashworth called Baker over to an alley and beat him with his fists and a 6-foot board and kicked him, according to court documents and Ashworth's interview with police.

After beating Baker, Ashworth took about $40 from him and went back to a bar. His girlfriend at the time, Tanna Brett, testified that Ashworth told her about the beating and said he had to go back to the alley to kill him to prevent Baker from identifying him.

"No mother can sleep at night knowing that her son was murdered in the fashion that my uncle was murdered in," Tangee Overly said after the execution. "My grandparents live with this every day, for the last nine years. And this has brought closure to my family."

Before he walked into the death chamber, prison medical technicians in a neighboring room had trouble inserting the shunt into Ashworth's right arm where the lethal drugs were administered. Workers ran their hands up his right arm looking for another location for the 2nd shunt after the one in his left arm went in easily.

Within 10 minutes, they had inserted the shunt. Ashworth stayed calm throughout, talking with workers in the room.

Ohio has now put 17 men to death since it resumed executions in 1999 with another volunteer, Wilford Berry.

ON THE NET----Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction:
http://www.drc.state.oh.us/

A look at Ohio's 4 volunteers for the death penalty

A look at the 4 death row inmates to drop their appeals since Ohio resumed executions in 1999:

• Wilford Berry, 36, of Cleveland, convicted of the shooting death of his boss, Charles Mitroff Jr., in 1989. Executed Feb. 19, 1999.
• Stephen Vrabel, 47, of Struthers, convicted of the 1989 gun slayings of his girlfriend Susan Clemente and their 3-year-old daughter, Lisa. Executed July 14, 2004.
• Scott Mink, 40, of Union, convicted of bludgeoning his parents, William and Sheila Mink, to death in 2000. Executed July 20, 2004.
• Herman Dale Ashworth, 32, of Newark, convicted of beating Daniel Baker to death in 1996 in an alley in Newark.

(source: Ohio Department of Corrections)

(sources for both: Associated Press)