Death row inmate, OU grad looks back

He married Lisa Huff in 1990, while he was still in school, and they had two daughters before divorcing shortly after his graduation.Filiaggi, now 41, talks fondly about his days at OU from a small conference room at the Mansfield Correctional Institution. His cuffed hands jingle as he gestures.

 His voice becomes clinical when the subject is the conviction he received for fatally shooting Huff in 1994. His lawyers argued a defense based on doctors' findings of a chemical imbalance in his body that indicated bipolar disorder, a condition marked by mood swings. The appeals are over, and ultimately the courts upheld his conviction."I'm done," he said. "I'm just waiting for a date." His execution date, usually
given about 90 days in advance, likely will be set this month, he added.

‘Crazy thinking'

The divorce from his wife began a downward spiral of events that led Filiaggi to plan to shoot himself in front of his ex-wife, a plan he now calls "crazy thinking;" the result of a failure to see other options. On January 24, 1994, Filiaggi visited Huff in northern Ohio where she stayed with her fiancé. "From there, it was just like a dream," he
said.He describes the ensuing chase into a neighbor's house with the tone of a distant outsider."It was so surreal. I can see it now, but it's like it wasn't me, but I'm watching from out of my body," Filiaggi said. Filiaggi found Huff hiding in a closet, and the gun he carried went off in a struggle, hitting Huff in the shoulder, he said. "Next thing I know, she's sitting on the bedroom floor with her head down, and I walked up behind her and pulled the trigger," he said. "She just sat there. And I turned around
and walked out of the house, and that was that.

"He left the area for a week and eventually peacefully surrendered to olice.The same Fooge College friends and acquaintances of Filiaggi, a Lorain County native, say they still have trouble comprehending how the studious boxer and rugby player they knew is a man now convicted of murder.

Athens resident Cindy Hayes attended OU with Filiaggi and was shocked by news of the shooting. She tried to keep contact with her friend but stopped as she struggled to make sense of the situation.
When she decided to visit again two years ago, Hayes said she hoped she
would find a man who fit some criminal image, an image that made sense.
Instead, he seemed like the same Fooge she knew, she said.Herman Carson, the
Athens attorney who represented Filiaggi after a one-punch, college bar
fight that resulted in a misdemeanor assault conviction, said he remembers
his client as a very polite guy and bright student.

"You wonder what went wrong, was there something someone could have done,"
Carson said. Filiaggi himself has no clear explanation. "How did I end up
here? I don't know," he shrugs. He adds quickly, however, that hindsight has
illuminated mistakes. Making peace Filiaggi has mixed thoughts about the
appropriateness of his punishment, which he says he came to terms with more
than a decade ago. People would empathize more if the situation were
reversed with his ex-wife as the shooter, he said, but he makes no attempt
at explanation of the crime. "How do you justify taking somebody's life?" he
asked. "You don't."That's exactly what Hayes said she has come to realize -
while she can't get her mind around it, her friend has accepted the
circumstances and seems to have made peace with the course of his life.
Filiaggi lives vicariously through the stories and photos of friends like
Hayes. The visits are a welcome break from the solitary "concrete coffin"
where Filiaggi spends most of his days, he said, days that offer plenty of
time for reflection."You never realize how good you got it out there until
you don't have things," Filiaggi said. "I mean, hell, I ain't walked on
grass in over a decade. What I wouldn't do to walk on some grass."

---

Source : The Post Online

http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/articles/2006/09/06/news/14353.html

Discuss this article on the forums. (1 posts)