Jay D Scott

Scott shot and killed a Cleveland woman during an attempted robbery of
her delicatessen. The next day he shot and killed a security guard outside a
Cleveland seafood restaurant. He was executed at Southern Ohio Correctional
Institution, Lucasville, Ohio.

A diagnosed schizophrenic, Scott spent the final day and a half of his life at the
Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, meeting with family, an
Islamic spiritual adviser, and his lawyers, and eating a last meal of fish, hot sauce,
and Pepsi.

He spent much of his time in a cramped cell with a cot, a television, and a tiny
window through which visitors could make contact with him. It was a routine he had followed twice before on April 17 and May 15, when his execution was delayed just before it was to take place.
The bearded, graying, 48-year-old black man was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m.,
paying the ultimate price for the robbery slaying of Vinnie Prince, the elderly owner of a Cleveland delicatessen, on May 6, 1983. Addressing three members of his family witnessing his execution, Scott said: "Spook, George, Randy. I love you all.
Tell my family and friends I send my love. Don't worry. Tell them I'm all right."

Ted Wendling, a Statehouse reporter for the Plain Dealer who attended Scott's execution said,
"It's sort of like a badge of honor. I think of that as a domestic version of being a war correspondent."

But it is not a badge Wendling cares to earn twice. Since seeing Scott put to death, Wendling has not volunteered to witness another execution.

Scott's execution had already been halted twice at the eleventh hour when Wendling, and the other witnesses gathered for a third time in Lucasville.

From the witness room, Wendling watched with Scott's brothers as his sentence was carried out.

"There's this terrible moment, where you can see the chest stop heaving, where you realize, 'I just watched somebody die,'" Wendling said. "And more so, 'I just watched the state put somebody to death.'"

"And I'm just shaking and watching the brothers in one of the most private moments of their lives, and I was sort of reluctant to say anything to them, but I sort of wanted to and needed to."

Wendling apologized to Scott's brothers for intruding on the moment and delicately asked if they had any public comment. One responded.

"The guy looks at me with complete contempt in his eyes and says, 'I hope the Lakers win tonight.'"

"I'll never forget that moment," Wendling said. "I was a voyeur to this guy's suffering, watching his brother die, and I just thought, 'I'm not doing this again.'"