Ohio: The State with no Compassion or Justice

 

The Men Executed in Ohio since 1999 are:

 http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/Executed/executed25.htm

Jay Scott was the first inmate to be executed involuntary. He was finally executed on 14^th June 2001.  A diagnosed schizophrenic, Scott 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 minutes before it was to take place. Three times in total, Jay Scott was put on the gurney and had the needles in place. Twice there were last minute stays of execution. The third time there was no stay.

 

John Byrd who was executed on 19^th February 2002, had evidence of innocence.

 Ohio executed him anyway.

Prior to this John had also been within hours of being executed before a stay of execution was granted. John had been sentenced to die in the electric chair, and then lethal injection was added to the choice of death.

Byrd chose the electric chair as his method of execution, to demonstrate the brutality of the method, which has not been used in Ohio since 1963. But Ohio banned the chair in November 2001, right after they gave him a stay of execution

 Which left lethal injection as the sole means of execution.

He said,  'I'm innocent in this case, and I'm not going to make it easy for them to put me down like some  farm animal,'"

 

Lewis Williams, Jr. executed January 14, 2004

The condemned man, struggled and yelled out "please God, help me," he had to be carried into the execution chamber by six guards before being put to death

His mother, Bonnie Williams, witnessed her son's struggle and was taken out in a wheelchair afterward.

The execution team had to forcibly lift Lewis Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of a table next door to the death chamber.

It was the first time in nine executions since the state resumed the practice in 1999 that an inmate has struggled with guards. Williams was the first Ohio inmate executed after a claim of mental retardation was rejected.

"It was an awful thing to watch," said Stephen Ferrell, an assistant state public defender.

Reginald Wilkinson, Ohio's prisons director, called it disturbing and traumatic. "It was probably as traumatic as anything our staff has gone through," he said.

Williams, 45, professed his innocence even as he was carried into the death chamber by four guards.

"I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. God, please help me," Williams said as he was strapped to the execution table. The diminutive Williams was 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 117 pounds, according to prison officials.

It took several members of the execution team to carry a struggling Williams into the preparation room, as seen on two monitors in the witness room next to the death chamber. At least nine guards had to restrain Williams at various points as they prepared his arms and inserted needles.

One guard standing at his head alternately restrained him and patted his right shoulder to comfort him.

 Discussing Williams's extraordinary behavior, Andrea Dean is blunt.

"Is this one more traumatic than the others? Let me answer that for you: This inmate did not assault our staff. He wasn't fighting. He wasn't being combative with the staff. What took place last Wednesday: Inmate Williams was fighting to stay alive," Dean said.

"He was actually acting like a 5-year-old might act when they're getting a shot," she said. "But he wasn't trying to hit anyone. He was just trying not to die."

"No inmate has ever reacted like that before. The other inmates walked into the execution chamber."

"It didn't leave me mentally disturbed or anguished," she said. "What affected me was watching his mother have to observe him acting that way. I think that's what bothered a lot of us, because we had to not only look at him trying not to die, but we were in there with his mother."

Witnessing an execution is part of her day at the office, even when the killer goes to his death screaming his innocence.

"Do I need a mental health day?" Dean said. "No."

"Was the execution traumatic? No. Was this one different? Yes."

 

Ohio's lethal injection protocol includes a paralyzing agent, pancuronium bromide, that could leave the inmate conscious before death, but cast a chemical veil over the excruciatingly painful effects of death by suffocation and heart attack.

Veterinarians forbid using the same types of drugs for euthanizing pets, in order to avoid inflicting pain on the animals.

Judges in some states have granted stays of execution in response to similar lawsuits.

"We wouldn't put a stray dog to sleep with the drugs we use to execute human beings," argued State Public Defender David Bodiker. "Apparently, veterinarians worry more about torturing pets than Ohio's executioners worry about torturing human beings."

 

Stephen Vrabel 14^th July 2004 VOLUNTEER

Stephen Vrabel was executed, for the aggravated murders of his live-in companion, Susan Clemente, 29, and the couple's 3-year-old daughter, Lisa Clemente, in 1989.

After shooting his live-in girlfriend of almost four years and their daughter, he placed Clemente's body in the refrigerator and Lisa's body in the freezer. He continued living at the apartment for several weeks before leaving the city.

A relative discovered the bodies soon after Vrabel left town, when he stopped by to collect the rent. When Vrabel learned that the bodies had been discovered, he turned himself in to authorities and confessed to the murders.

According to information released by the Supreme Court of Ohio, Vrabel subsequently was found to be incapable of assisting in his own defense as a result of mental illness, and therefore incompetent to stand trial. In 1994, after five years of confinement in mental hospitals, Vrabel was found sufficiently recovered to stand trial and was sentenced to death.

During an interview reported by Vindy.com , the day before his execution, he gave no reason for murdering Susan Clemente and described Lisa as being "the perfect child." He explained that he placed the bodies in the freezer as an attempt to slow down decomposition, "somehow, at first I thought I could bring Lisa back to life or something like that," said Vrabel.

July 20, 2004 Scott Mink Volunteer

The execution of a man whose drug-fueled rage led him to kill his sleeping parents with a ball-peen hammer

A prison spokesman says Scott Mink was smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, but not eating. He declined he waffles, cereal, milk and apple juice the prison served him.

The spokesman says Mink remained calm and cooperative.

After pleading guilty to charges of aggravated murder in 2001, Mink asked a three-judge panel in Montgomery County to sentence him to death.

Scott Mink's execution by injection -- three years after his conviction -- was the quickest an Ohio inmate's death sentence was carried out since the state re-enacted the death penalty in 1981

It is also just a week after the execution Stephen Vrabel, who also dropped his appeals.

Mink pleaded guilty to killing his parents four years ago because they hid the keys to his truck to keep him from buying drugs.  Defense attorney Gary Crim told the Ohio Parole Board that Mink wished for no further actions to stop his execution.

"I think that his life since he woke up after he sobered up and was arrested is full of remorse," Crim said. "That's his way of remorse, seeking execution."

October 13, 2004 Adremy Dennis.

Dennis was 18 when he and an accomplice tried to rob two men outside an Akron home in 1994. One of the men gave up $15. The other, Kurt Kyle, 29, began searching his pockets, and Dennis shot him to death.

Adremy Dennis was 18 years and five months old at the time of the crime, emerging from a childhood of deprivation and neglect. The State of Ohio, in line with international law, prohibits the execution of people who were under 18 at the time of the crime, recognizing the immaturity of youthful offenders. Indeed, the state does not allow anyone under the age of 21 to buy alcohol or anyone under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes.

 Adremy Dennis was served alcohol in various bars on the night of the crime. He had smoked marijuana dipped in embalming fluid. He was immature, impulsive and intoxicated, and armed with a sawn-off shotgun.

Twenty-eight-year-old  Dennis was the youngest inmate executed in Ohio since 1962, and the 15th to die since the state resumed the death penalty in 1999.

 

Herman Ashworth  September 27, 2005  Volunteer

He pleaded guilty at his trial and waived the right to present mitigating evidence. His defense lawyer did not cross-examine any witnesses. In May 2005, he dismissed his lawyers who were trying to keep him alive. On 31 August 2005 Ashworth refused to appear before a hearing of the Ohio Parole Board, which recommended that he be executed. Governor Bob Taft issued a statement on 23 September saying he was denying clemency. Ashworth is the fourth among prisoners in Ohio to drop their appeals since the death penalty was resumed in the state in 1999.

Due to Hurricane Rita his adoptive parents were unable to visit their son before the execution. They had not planned to witness the execution.

The prison medical technicians took ten minutes to insert the catheter into his arm.

John Hicks November 29, 2005

Hicks was a cocaine addict and alcoholic. He was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m. on November 29, 2005, after being executed by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio.

Asked for a final statement by the warden, he said:

"It begun with a syringe in my arm and it ends with a needle in my arm. It's come full circle. I realize that. ... I know this may be shallow or hollow words to y'all but it's coming from my heart."

After the drugs had begun to flow, he said "Whoa. Hallelujah", laughed loudly and then said "Yes. Thank you."

Glenn Benner II February 7, 2006

Just before Glenn Benner aka Bim was executed for the murders of Trinna Bowser and Cynthia Sedgewick he spoke with Trinna's brother Rodney. "Over the past 20 years, I've caused unimaginable pain," he said into a microphone, strapped to a table in the execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution. "Cynthia and Trina were beautiful girls. They didn't deserve what I done to them. They are in a better place. I pray that God will grant you peace."
Looking at the family members of Trina Bowser and Cynthia Sedgwick, separated by a pane of glass, Benner mouthed, "I'm sorry."

On the night before his execution, right after he had said goodbye to 17 family members and friends, Benner made a phone call to Rodney Bowser.(who was an old friend and the brother of Trinna)  It was the first time the two had talked in 20 years.
The call lasted for about 20 minutes

Benner called Rodney Bowser back for a second talk -- just in case.
This one lasted 90 minutes.

Benner met with Rodney Bowser:

They called each other by their childhood nicknames -- "Bimbo" for Benner and "Rodney Man" for Bowser.
Bowser clocked their talk, which began at 8 a.m., at 17 minutes -- two minutes over the limit. They were calm. There were tears. They shook hands.
After that, Bowser was so overcome with emotion he gave up his execution witness seat to one of his brothers. He didn't want to see it happen. More surprising, he didn't want it to happen at all.
"I didn't want to deal with it," Bowser said, "and I didn't want to take away from what the rest of the family wanted."

 

At 8:55 a.m., he called Benner back. He was told that Benner was being readied for his execution and couldn't talk. But his spiritual advisor passed on Bowser's message -- that Bowser forgave him. As Rodney Bowser sees it, by the time of his death Benner was a changed man. He had become religious. He wanted the Bowser family -- and especially Rodney -- to learn what they wanted to know.
A weight has been lifted. Rodney Bowser doesn't have nightmares anymore.
He doesn't believe in the death penalty anymore, either. A life sentence for Benner would have been just fine, he says now. People can change, he now believes.
After all, his sister's killer did.

 

Joseph Clark May 2, 2006

t took 22 minutes for the execution technicians to find a vein suitable for insertion of the catheter. The vein collapsed shortly after the start of the injection and Clark's arm began to swell. He raised his head off the gurney and said five times, "It don't work. It don't work." The curtains surrounding the gurney were then closed while the technicians worked for 30 minutes to find another vein. An autopsy found 19 puncture marks resulting from attempts to establish an IV line.

It took Ohio 90 minutes to execute Clark. This is believed to be the second-longest lethal injection on record.....

Clark's execution was notable for a number of reasons. He spent 21 years and 5 months on death row, making him one of the longest-serving inmates between sentencing and execution. He also gave the longest (10 minutes) final statement according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Clark's execution was also most notable and controversial because it took officials nearly 90 minutes to complete the process. The problems began when the staff were unable to find two suitable veins to attach the IV lines leading to the lethal chemicals. Clark had an extensive history as an intravenous drug user, making his veins weak and brittle. Under the state's execution protocol, two veins were required with the second serving as backup should the main line fail. After unsuccessfully trying to find a suitable second site for nearly 30 minutes, the staff opted to move ahead with only the single main line.

Shortly after the chemicals began flowing Clark shouted, "It don't work. It don't work.", and attempted to raise his head and upper body, according to witnesses.

Prison personnel worked for 25 minutes to find usable veins in both arms to attach intravenous tubes, but the execution team could not find one in his right arm. The decision was made to proceed with one IV shunt in the left.

 

At one point, a team member rolled up the leg of his trousers to try to find a suitable vein in his right leg,

 

Mr. Clark could be heard "moaning and groaning" by witnesses. A new IV was established, the curtains were re-opened, and the drug infusion began again. Mr. Clark raised his head several times and breathed deeply before becoming still.
 
A condemned inmate asked prison officials to find another way to execute him as they struggled to administer a lethal injection after an intravenous line failed, prison records show.

"Can you just give me something by mouth to end this?" convicted killer Joseph Clark asked during the 90-minute delay, according to accounts written by members of the execution team and obtained by The Associated Press.

It took another 40 minutes before the second vein was found and the execution continued. By 11:26 a.m. Clark was dead.

Even the victim's family complained that this was cruel and unusual punishment.

 

• Christopher Newton May 24, 2007  Volunteer
• Attention has been riveted to the horribly botched "execution" of Christopher Newton. The execution team took over an hour to fine a vein to suitable enough to kill Newton. In the sixteen minutes he took to die "Newton's stomach heaved, his chin quivered and twitched, and his body twice mildly convulsed within its restraints. Records show that other Ohio inmates died within an average of 7.5 minutes." Ohio DoC is saying the execution was not a botch (and therefore will do no follow-up, such as an autopsy) , despite experts opinions to the contrary that it was likely a botch with at least the paralytic agent not having been delivered in sufficient dosage.

The controversy surrounding Newton's execution was primarily attributed to the many problems associated with the administration of the injection. In particular, because he weighed 265 pounds, Newton's veins were very difficult to find. It took over two hours and 10 attempts before the execution was completed. It took so long that Newton was given a bathroom break. On average, it should take 20 minutes for a successful execution. The problems with Newton's execution occurred less than one year after the 90 minute execution of fellow Ohio inmate, Joseph Lewis Clark

 

Rocky Barton July 12th, 2006   Volunteer

Convicted on October 10, 2003, Barton spent 2 years, 9 months, 3 days on death row.

Darrell Ferguson August 8th, 2006  Volunteer

He was the youngest inmate put to death in Ohio since 1962. He spent 2 years and 10 months on death row and had waived all appeals after his 2003 conviction for three counts of aggravated murder.

Although his attorneys maintained that IQ tests revealed Ferguson was borderline mentally retarded, Ohio courts found him competent to stand trial for three murders under the standards set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia.

Daniel Wilson June 3, 2009

Wilson's attorneys had sought to avoid his execution, telling the Ohio Parole Board he was beaten as a child by an alcoholic father who would handcuff him to a chair.

His spiritual adviser, the Rev. Neil Kookoothe, said Wilson was baptized as a Roman Catholic last week and had received communion this morning.

"Dan wanted to make sure his sorrow for the Lutz family and his remorse for taking Carol's life is sincere," Kookoothe said. "He wanted people to know that."

After he was strapped to the injection table, Wilson gave a brief statement apologizing for killing Lutz, whom he kidnapped after a night of drinking at the Empire Tavern in Elyria.

"I'm very sorry for what I did to Carol," Wilson said, before adding an apology to his own family.

"I'm very sorry for how things turned out," he said.

Wilson, who was baptized and confirmed as a Roman Catholic last week, then said he believed in Jesus.

"He's my savior," Wilson said. "I'm coming home."

A few moments later, Warden Kerns pinched and shook Wilson's arm.

"Dan, can you hear me?" he asked in a voice muffled by the two-way glass separating the execution chamber from the witness room.

Wilson didn't respond.

A member of the execution team then came into the execution chamber to make certain that the IV lines carrying the drugs into Wilson were working properly.

The efforts to ensure Wilson was unconscious were part of a newly adopted set of protocols that went into effect a few weeks before the execution.

When the curtain reopened, Kerns announced the time of death - 10:33 a.m.

• John Fautenberry July 14, 2009
  Forty-five-year-old John Fautenberry of Oregon was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility .
• Fautenberry gave up his right to a trial by jury in Cincinnati and pleaded no contest in July 1992 to two counts each of aggravated murder and grand theft and one count of aggravated robbery in Daron's death.
• His Ohio defense attorney, Dennis Sipe, had argued that the state should pay a neuropsychologist to examine Fautenberry, whose last mental exam was 13 years ago. Sipe contended that Fautenberry should not be executed because he has brain damage from a childhood accident and from an injury while serving in the U.S. Navy.

Marvellous Keen 21 July 2009

The mitigating factors that existed in Mr. Keene's case that warranted executive consideration were:

• Mr. Keene's youth, clean record, and mental disorders.
• His remorse and confession.
• The repeated, traumatic loss of father figures from his life.

He was pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m. Tuesday, July 21, after receiving an intravenous cocktail of lethal drugs at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility here.

As part of a recent prison policy to ensure the inmate is completely unconscious after the first drug, thiopental sodium, Kerns shook Keene's shoulder and called his name twice. Then two other drugs were administered to stop his breathing and his heart.

Romell Broom: Attempted Execution. 15^th September 2009

The team began working on Broom, in a holding cell 17 steps from the execution chamber, at about 2 p.m., four hours after his execution was originally scheduled. That initial delay was due to a final federal appeals request.

After the team spent nearly an hour trying to find a workable vein, Broom tried to help them bring him a quicker death. He turned over on his left side, slid rubber tubing designed to clarify his veins up his left arm, then began moving the arm up and down while flexing and closing and opening his fingers. The execution team was able to access a vein, but it collapsed when technicians tried to insert saline fluid.

Broom then became visibly distressed, turning over on his back and covering his face with both hands. His torso heaved up and down and his feet shook, as he appeared to be crying. He wiped his eyes and was handed a roll of toilet paper, which he used to wipe his brow.

He sat up at the end of the bed and talked with his execution team.

The team had been asking Broom whether he wanted a break, but he chose to push ahead, as did the execution staff, prisons director Terry Collins said. Collins then insisted on a break and contacted the governor to let him know about the difficulties.

Broom, who did not have any witnesses present, requested that one of his attorneys, Adele Shank, come to the witness area. She asked to speak with Broom but was told that once the process started, it's protocol that attorneys can't have contact with their client.

"I want to know what Romell wants," Shank told a prison official, who told her that he was being cooperative.

"He's always cooperative," responded Shank. "I want to know what he wants me to do."

At about 3:20, the team tried to insert shunts through veins in Broom's legs as he sat upright on the table. He looked up several times during the process and appeared to grimace. A member of the execution team reached over and patted him on the back.

Roughly five minutes later, the team returned to Broom's arms to again try to access a vein and get the saline solution to work.

After speaking with the execution team, Collins said he determined that it was time he ask the governor for a reprieve, at about 4 p.m. The team told him they didn't believe his veins would accept the saline fluid, or hold if the execution reached the point when the lethal drugs would start being administered.

Collins said the difficulty in the process "absolutely, positively" does not shake his faith in the state's lethal injection procedure. He said his team wants to be "100 percent perfect 100 percent of the time" but that no one is.

"I have a team right now that's disappointed because they think they let me down," said Collins, who told the team they did not.

Collins said he thanked Broom after the reprieve was issued for the respectful way he dealt with the execution team and the demeanor he showed through the difficulties.

The State of Ohio plans to try again next week to execute a convicted

rapist-murderer, after a team of technicians spent 2 hours on Tuesday in

an unsuccessful effort to inject him with lethal drugs.

This is the 1st time an execution by lethal injection in the United States

has failed and then been rescheduled, according to Richard C. Dieter,

executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, in Washington.

The only similar case in modern times, Mr. Dieter said, occurred in

Louisiana in 1946, when electric shock failed to kill a convicted

murderer, Willie Francis. He was electrocuted the next year, after the

United States Supreme Court ruled that executing a prisoner in the wake of

a failed 1st attempt was constitutional.

Broom's lawyers described what happened Tuesday as torture and said they would try to block the execution. One of them, Adele Shank, said: "He survived this execution attempt, and they really can't do it again. It was cruel and unusual punishment."

Ms. Shank watched Tuesday's procedure on closed-circuit television. "I
could see him on the screen," she said, "and it was apparent to me that he
was wincing with pain."

The Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that
the state must abolish lethal injection.

"This is the 3rd screwed-up execution in 3 years," said Jeffrey M. Gamso
of the A.C.L.U. of Ohio. "They keep tweaking their protocol, but it takes
more than tweaks. They don't know how to do this competently, and they
need to stop."

In referring to 2 previous troubled executions in Ohio, Mr. Gamso was
speaking of the death of Joseph Clark in 2006, delayed more than an hour
because of problems with IV placement, and the 2007 execution of
Christopher Newton, also delayed more than an hour while technicians tried
at least 10 times to insert the IV.

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