OH - Too fat to die? We’re not buying it « Reply #1 on Aug 15, 2008, 3:39pm »
OH - Too fat to die? We’re not buying it
Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:28 pm (PDT) Published:Friday, August 15, 2008
Too fat to die? We’re not buying it
If the state of Ohio did not feed Richard Wade Cooey III, doubtless his lawyers would be arguing that he was being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
As it is, Cooey has been fed so well that he is morbidly obese, which allowed his lawyers to argue that executing him would be cruel and unusual punishment. He is so fat that his executioners will have difficulty finding a vein in which to insert the needle by which the lethal drugs would be administered.
First response
If the state of Ohio hasn’t responded to Cooey’s plight by now, it should. Put him on a strict regimen of low fat foots and moderate exercise. There was an intriguing sentence in a recent Columbus Dispatch story reporting Cooey’s latest attempt to avoid the execution he earned more than 20 years ago. It said that Cooey, whose reported weight on May 19 was 275 pounds, has gained weight in the last two months.
How does that happen? Prison officials presumably have control over everything Cooey eats. The story didn’t say how much he has gained, but he shouldn’t have gained a pound. He was sentenced to be executed, not sentenced to eat himself to death.
Cooey, 41, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. on Oct. 14. That is the date that justice should be served. He was sentenced to death for the murdering Dawn Marie McCreery, 20, and Wendy Jo Offredo, 21, on Sept. 1, 1986. Cooey and an accomplice, Clint Dickens, abducted and raped the Akron-area college women before choking and bludgeoning them to death. Dickens, a juvenile at the time, was sentenced to life in prison.
For two decades, during which Cooey put those 275 pounds on his 5 feet 7 inch body he has used various legal appeals to avoid execution, including claims of ineffective counsel. Five years ago he was within 12 hours of execution when a federal judge intervened.
Demands of justice
The families of the victims of such brutal murderers as Cooey deserve finality after a jury has rendered its verdict and a judge has passed sentence. Society demands that justice be administered impartially and efficiently.
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is required to do everything humanly possible to administer the three drugs that are part of the execution process in a humane manner. They should be preparing to do whatever is necessary in the case of Cooey, starting with putting him on a diet. In fact, the state had better begin closely monitoring the diets of all the men on death row, lest there be an epidemic of “morbid obesity.”
Ohio inmate facing execution asks state for mercy « Reply #2 on Aug 25, 2008, 3:06pm »
Ohio inmate facing execution asks state for mercy
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS The Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A death row inmate who says he's so fat that Ohio executioners would have trouble finding his veins was ready to plead for mercy Monday before the state parole board.
Lawyers for condemned killer Richard Cooey and several family members of the two college students he killed were expected to argue for and against his execution.
It's the second time Cooey has asked the state for clemency, a final stage in a death row inmate's appeal process that lets the governor consider the entire picture of an offender's case.
The Ohio Parole Board will make a recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland after the hearing. Strickland can follow the board's ruling or make his own decision.
Cooey made a similar request in 2003 but was rejected by the parole board and then Gov. Bob Taft.
The board said in a unanimous decision in July 2003 that Cooey continued to minimize his participation in his victims' deaths, despite a recent expression of remorse. The board also said Cooey had received proper representation at trial and during appeals.
Taft said there was no doubt that Cooey was guilty of "the senseless murders" of Dawn McCreery and Wendy Offredo in 1986.
On July 23, 2003, Cooey spent several hours awaiting execution in the death house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility before a federal judge granted him a reprieve.
Cooey is arguing in a federal lawsuit that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs.
His lawyers say Cooey had poor veins when he faced execution five years ago and the problem has been worsened by weight gain.
They cite a document filed by a prison nurse in 2003 that said Cooey had sparse veins and that executioners would need extra time.
The lawsuit also says prison officials have had difficulty drawing blood from Cooey for medical procedures. Cooey is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 267 pounds, according to the lawsuit.
Cooey, 41, was sentenced to die for raping and murdering McCreery and Offredo, two University of Akron students, in 1986. He was returned to death row after his 2003 reprieve. In 2005 he made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from death row, then in Mansfield.
In April, he lost a challenge to Ohio's lethal injection process when the U.S. Supreme Court said he had missed a deadline to file a lawsuit.
Cooey's execution is scheduled for Oct. 14. He would be the first inmate put to death in Ohio since Christopher Newton was executed last year for killing a prison cellmate over their chess games.
It would also be the first execution in Ohio since the end of an unofficial national moratorium on executions that began last year while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky's lethal injection procedure.
OH - Cooey death clock ticking « Reply #3 on Aug 27, 2008, 3:26pm »
OH - Cooey death clock ticking
Clemency hearing today for Akron killer, rapist
By Phil Trexler Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Aug 25, 2008
More than five years ago, Richard Wade Cooey was primed for execution.
In the summer of 2003, his clemency was denied by then-Gov. Bob Taft and weeks later, he was moved to the death-house cell at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
He ate his last meal as the family of one of his victims checked into a hotel. Three of them anticipated witnessing his death.
But on the evening before he was to be executed, Cooey won a stay from a federal judge. What was thought to be a momentary delay turned into five years.
Today, the clock begins to run again as a clemency hearing is scheduled to take place in Columbus.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh will once again argue for execution, just as she did at the 2003 hearing. She said finality is needed after more than two decades.
''The argument is the same,'' Walsh said. ''After 22 years, it's time to put an end to all of this. It's too long for the victims' family to go through this.''
Cooey, 41, a former Akron resident, is scheduled to die by injection Oct. 14. He has appealed, alleging he is too obese to be executed without enduring pain. The case is in U.S. District Court.
A three-judge panel sentenced him to death in November 1986 for the kidnapping, rape and murders of University of Akron juniors Wendy Offredo, 21, and Dawn McCreery, 20.
At today's hearing, members of the Ohio Parole Authority will hear arguments for and against Cooey's execution. They will then vote in private and forward the recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland.
In 2003, the hearing took about four hours as prosecutors, defense lawyers and family members from all sides spoke to the panel.
Death row inmates are not permitted to attend. Cooey was interviewed by the board Aug. 14.
Five years ago, court-appointed attorneys sought mercy by presenting evidence of Cooey's poor and abusive childhood: His soiled diapers were rubbed in his face during potty training. He was struck in the head with a hammer by his father for misbehaving.
The attorneys said Cooey had his first taste of beer at age 5 and was ''high almost every day'' on a variety of drugs during his teenage years.
Prison, however, has helped Cooey discover his ''moral compass,'' they said.
Walsh said she will offer many of the same gruesome facts and disturbing crime-scene photos that were shown five years ago. She will also talk about Cooey's ill-fated escape attempt in 2005.
Cooey and childhood friend Clinton Dickens, then 17, were convicted of killing the UA women.
From an Akron overpass, Cooey and Dickens tossed a concrete slab onto Interstate 77, striking and disabling Offredo's car. The men drove up to the car under the pretense of offering help, but then drove the sorority sisters to a remote area, where the women were raped and bludgeoned.
Cooey contends he did not directly take part in the beatings and that he is guilty only of rape and not stopping Dickens' attack. Dickens is serving two life sentences.
Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.
OH- Victims' families want Richard W. Cooey II exe « Reply #4 on Aug 27, 2008, 3:29pm »
OH- Victims' families want Richard W. Cooey II executed
Victims' families want Richard W. Cooey II executed
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Reginald Fields Plain Dealer Bureau Columbus -- Richard W. Cooey II, the death row killer who has frustrated the families of his victims by staving off execution for five years, was at it again Monday with a rare second chance to ask the state for mercy.
But the fami lies of Dawn McCreery and Wendy Offredo -- two Univer sity of Akron women raped and beaten in 1986 -- have had enough. They implored the state parole board to reject Cooey's clemency request and get on with his scheduled Oct. 14 execution.
The board will make a recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland next Tuesday on whether to commute the death sentence to life in prison.
"The time has come for this court to allow his sentence to be carried out," said Robert McCreery, Dawn's younger brother.
McCreery noted that two of his three children, a 16-year-old and 13- year-old who never knew their aunt, are now old enough to wonder why Cooey is still alive.
"It's something they never should have had to deal with," McCreery said. "It's gone on too long."
Any sign of remorse over 22 years from Cooey, who in 2003 tried to escape from prison, could have eased the pain, said Jon Offredo, Wendy's younger brother.
"Our family has never gotten an apology from Richard Cooey," Offredo said. "We've gotten blatant lies and excuses."
Cooey, 41, from Summit County, who claims to weigh at least 275 pounds, grabbed national headlines just weeks ago when he filed a federal lawsuit claiming to be too fat to be executed.
He was denied clemency in 2003 by former Gov. Bob Taft and came 12 hours from being executed when a federal judge stopped it on Cooey's claim of ineffective legal counsel. As the state moved to get Cooey rescheduled, he filed a lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection process. That move kept him alive five more years until the suit was dismissed.
His attorneys argued Monday that he is a changed man who is sorry for what he did at age 19. They blamed alcohol for the crimes and ineffective counsel for landing Cooey on death row.
"Rick Cooey is no longer the man who committed those awful crimes," said his attorney, Dana Cole. "He's remorseful to the point of self- loathing."
But Cole acknowledged that Cooey refuses to accept full blame for killing the women, only saying he participated. He blames the fatal blows on his 17-year-old accomplice, Clint Dickens, who is serving life.
The women were abducted on Sept. 1, 1986 just after midnight, shortly after they had left their jobs at an Akron restaurant.
Cooey and Dickens had disabled the women's car by throwing a large rock from a highway overpass onto the vehicle as it passed underneath. The women did not know who damaged their car when Cooey and Dickens drove up, offering to help.
Their bodies were found the next day in brush behind an Akron-area shopping mall. They had been raped, beaten with a club and strangled with a shoestring. An "x" was etched onto their stomachs.
Summit County prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said Cooey was the mastermind.
"I am asking for justice, and there is no justice until this sentence is carried out," Walsh told the board.
OH--Death Penalty-Cooey « Reply #5 on Aug 29, 2008, 9:33am »
OH--Death Penalty-Cooey August 28, 2008 12:52 EDT
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A prosecutor in Ohio tells The Associated Press that she is launching an investigation into a death row inmate's claim that he committed an unsolved murder more than two decades ago.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh says she'll ask police to look into the claim by Richard Cooey, who is scheduled to be executed Oct. 14 for killing two college students in 1986.
Cooey says he killed a man who hit his sister but was never prosecuted for it.
Documents obtained by the AP indicate Cooey made the claim to prison employees while awaiting execution five years ago. The allegation was not investigated at the time.
Cooey's attorney Eric Allen says he needs to study the claim before commenting.
In a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month, Cooey argued that he is too fat to be put to death. He said executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs.
The Associated Press • September 2, 2008 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A prosecutor says a death row inmate facing execution next month has lost his bid for clemency from the Ohio Parole Board.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh says the board has unanimously rejected the request for mercy from condemned killer Richard Cooey.
• The Parole Board's clemency report
Walsh says the board could not find a sufficient and justifiable basis for sparing his life.
The request was a long shot for the 41-year-old Cooey, sentenced to die for raping and murdering two University of Akron students in 1986.
State prison records show that out of 35 requests to the parole board for mercy, the panel has recommended clemency just once under the state's death penalty law.
Cooey has filed a federal lawsuit arguing he is too obese to be executed safely by injection.
OH - Law requires executions be painless « Reply #7 on Sept 7, 2008, 11:39am »
OH - Law requires executions be painless Article published Saturday, September 6, 2008 Law requires executions be painless
I want to clarify issues reported in recent stories about Richard Cooey’s impending execution. While “Inmate claims he is too fat to die” may make a good headline, the facts behind the story are much different. As his lawyers in this matter, we are not arguing that Cooey, under the right methods, cannot be executed.
Ohio law requires that executions be “painless.” While individuals may debate whether an execution should be painless, surely everyone can agree that government officials should be required to follow the law.
Ohio’s execution protocol allows for only one set of procedures and dosages; it does not take into account individual variations — such as weight, medical history, and vein access — that impact the effects of intravenous drugs.
And that is the point of this litigation: despite Cooey’s obesity, poor vein access, and prescribed medication, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has made no modification to its protocol to ensure that the execution of Cooey will follow Ohio law.
There are methods to successfully deliver drugs (lethal or otherwise) into persons who are obese, have poor peripheral veins, or use certain prescription medications. The state could choose to have trained staff available to place an alternate IV, and could adjust the amount of drugs administered.
But it seems those responsible for executions in Ohio do not care to follow the law and make adjustments for individual variations.
Medical professionals, including a board-certified anesthesiologist affiliated with Columbia University, have advised that executing Cooey in accordance with Ohio’s current protocol will likely run afoul of Ohio law.
The state legislators who wrote Ohio’s execution law mandated that executions be painless. When Ohio executes those condemned to death, is it too much to ask that it follow its own laws?
Timothy Young Ohio Public DefenderOffice of the OhioPublic DefenderColumbus
Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the case « Reply #8 on Sept 13, 2008, 2:22pm »
Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the case and will issue his clemency decision in coming weeks.
Published:Thursday, September 11, 2008
By Marc Kovac
Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the case and will issue his clemency decision in coming weeks.
YOUNGSTOWN — An Ohio man sentenced to die next month for the grisly rape and murder of two college students more than 20 years ago said he did not kill the women.
Richard Wade Cooey II blasted prosecutors for investigating allegations he murdered another man (a misunderstanding stemming from something he said five years ago while awaiting execution), railed against lethal injection and state-sponsored capital punishment and countered suggestions he’s seeking a delay based solely on his weight.
“I did not beat these girls,” he said. “Yeah, I’m supposed to be in prison for what I did. I’m not denying that. I didn’t do the beatings in this case, and it can be proven scientifically, not just from what I’m saying. ... It can be proven.”
Cooey, scheduled for execution Oct. 14, spoke to a representative of the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association Tuesday during an interview at the Ohio State Penitentiary, the maximum-security prison in Youngstown. The stocky inmate (about 5 feet 7 inches tall and about 270 pounds) wore dark green prison-issue clothing and sat handcuffed behind a glass partition in a divided interview room.
In September 1986, Cooey, now 41, and two accomplices threw a chunk of concrete over the side of an interstate overpass into a passing car.
He and another man, Clint Dickens, then played good Samaritan to the victims, 21-year-old Wendy Jo Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery, before kidnapping them, raping and murdering the two in an isolated area in Norton.
Cooey was convicted on multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape, aggravated robbery and felonious assault. He was admitted to death row in December 1986. Dickens was 17 at the time and tried as a juvenile; he was sentenced to life in prison.
Cooey has argued he received inadequate and incompetent legal counsel throughout his case, with multiple attorneys who failed to challenge evidence, question filings or fight to have new evidence introduced. He estimated he’s had 14 or more lawyers representing him at different times.
“There isn’t a competent capital litigation attorney in Ohio,” he said. “Not one.”
Cooey also continued to deny hitting either of the women and said evidence collected in the case (namely a shoestring tied around a club and blood taken from a passenger-side door of the car involved) would exonerate his involvement in the bludgeoning.
“I admit to what I did in this case, you know what I mean?” he said. “I wanted to go in and plead guilty to the stuff that I did in my case. The co-defendant in my case pled no-contest and was a juvenile at the time... . I’m the only one that could get the death penalty,” he said. “I couldn’t put [my co-defendent] out there. ... I couldn’t get him to testify, I couldn’t use his statements. ...”
Cooey was nearly executed about five years ago but was granted a last- minute stay.
During a clemency hearing last month, the prosecutor and representatives from the attorney general’s office and victims’ families argued Cooey has had ample legal proceedings and hearings, the legal process had run its course properly, and it was time for the death sentence to be carried out.
In a statement he read during the hearing, Robert McCreery Jr. told board members, “Every day that goes by is an insult to my sister’s memory and a stain on the reputation of the court system that he uses at will. Please grant our family and the people of this community some peace even in its smallest measure by honoring Cooey’s death penalty sentence.”
Parole board members agreed, writing: “Twenty-two years of exhaustive judicial scrutiny at both the state and federal level has failed to sustain many of the claims, including ineffective counsel, raised by Mr. Cooey in support of clemency. … No court has found the errors sufficient to impact the appropriateness of the penalty decision.”
It added, “Nothing in our independent inquiry into the appropriateness of clemency for Richard Wade Cooey suggests that any manifest injustice has occurred or that mitigating factors known today outweigh the aggravating circumstances of this offense. A sufficient, justifiable basis for mercy cannot be found.”
Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the recommendation and other information about the case and will issue his clemency decision in coming weeks.
Cooey has filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking to halt the execution based on his weight, sparse veins and migraine medication he takes. He said he understands the filing has become known as the “fat man lawsuit,” but he said weight isn’t the issue, and obesity isn’t the focus.
“It has to do with, the vein that they didn’t have access ...,” he said. “When I was down there in 2003, they only found one vein that was viable. ... They only found one vein, in my hand. ... I didn’t want them down there poking and prodding on me like they did them guys, just like when I was down there before.
“Also with regard to the medication I’m on [for migraines] that will counteract the first drug, and just like it did with the other guys, like I was trying to talk about before. The previous executions, they don’t put all the drugs in you.”
Cooey cited timelines from past executions that detail how lethal drugs were administered. He said the injection times are inconsistent and prove those sentenced to die aren’t receiving full doses or units were injected improperly.
“I see numerous botched executions in Ohio,” he said.
Cooey said he supports the victims’ families’ stance on his execution.
“If I was them, I’d be saying that I believe in the same thing,” he said. “If I was them, I would want everyone involved in this... if somebody witnessed it, I would want them dead. ... And I would never speak against the family on anything they say or do. ... They have that right.”
But Cooey added he does not support the death penalty.
“I’m not pro capital punishment for the state,” he said. “Like I said, I believe in an eye for an eye when it comes for the family. ... [But] I would never be a proponent of it, because, like I said, it’s financially, racially and politically motivated, without a doubt. I mean you’re always going to have the rich ... have you ever seen a millionaire end up on death row all alone? Have you ever seen anybody that could afford a good lawyer ... end up on death row? Never.”
Re: Ohio, Richard Cooey, says he's too fat for exe « Reply #9 on Sept 17, 2008, 10:38am »
*Associated Press - September 16, 2008 2:45 PM ET*
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio killer says he's not deliberately gaining weight to keep his death sentence from being carried out.
Richard Cooey also says he believes his deep veins are a constitutional issue.
Cooey is scheduled to die Oct. 14th for raping and fatally beating two young women in Akron 22 years ago.
In a death row interview with The Associated Press, Cooey said Tuesday that his veins are too deep to insert a lethal injection and that should rule out his execution.
The 5-foot, 7-inch Cooey weighs 267 pounds and has gained 70 pounds behind bars but says he hasn't done that on purpose in hopes of staying alive.
During the hourlong interview at the state penitentiary in Youngstown, Cooey said he would take a bullet to the head if that would satisfy people.
Conversations with Cooey: Does anybody really care « Reply #10 on Sept 17, 2008, 10:41am »
Conversations with Cooey: Does anybody really care? Sept 17, 2008
Richard Cooey has been getting a lot of attention lately.
He's the guy in that "fat man lawsuit," as he puts it. The one who, in court filings, cites his "morbid obesity" among the reasons he shouldn't be put to death next month. (He said his weight isn't the issue; it's about vein access and medication he takes that will counter the lethal injection drugs).
I interviewed him last week up at the state pen in Youngstown on behalf of the Statehouse press corps, which randomly selects members to complete such tasks.
It's the second time I've talked to someone on death row, the first being the late James Filiaggi, who went to meet his maker, courtesy of the state, in April 2007. He was tired of being "monsterized" in the press and didn't want to talk to me, but he did admit what he did and voiced remorse.
I never spoke to Christopher Newton, but I did witness his execution in Lucasville in May 2007. In one of his final television interviews before making the trip to the death house, he appeared remorseful and used the opportunity to warn kids not to follow his path and to make better choices in life.
None of which means a whole lot to their deceased victims or the families and loved ones left behind as a result of their crimes. But, at least from my perspective, they seemed to be more accepting of their punishment.
That's not the case with Cooey.
A little more than a month away from his execution date, he still maintains he didn't do the killing in his case, instead placing the blame on his co-defendant, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime and is in prison for life. He blames incompetent legal counsel for his death sentence. And he says state-sponsored lethal injection is a crock, anyway.
"I'm not pro capital punishment for the state," he said. "Like I said, I believe in an eye for an eye when it comes for the family ... (But) I would never be a proponent of it, because, like I said, it's financially, racially and politically motivated, without a doubt ... Have you ever seen a millionaire end up on death row all alone? Have you ever seen anybody that could afford a good lawyer ... end up on death row? ... Never."
Cooey had plenty to say about the aforementioned issues. He had his case file and wanted to go through the timelines on past executions, making his case that the injection procedures are flawed. He also had plenty of disparaging things to say about Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh.
But he had little to say about anything else. He made it clear that he had several areas he wanted to cover; outside of that, he wasn't talking.
At one point, thwarted by the public information officer from going into details about other inmates' executions, he said, "Then, basically, the interview has to be ceased then. Because basically there's nothing to talk about."
That's understandable, I suppose. Cooey's crimes were heinous, and an entire city has been waiting for more than two decades for justice. Read the editorials and letters to the editor that have surfaced since the weight issue came to light; the few e-mails I have received from angry community members are far from flattering.
Future press coverage isn't going to shed a positive light or offer much pity for a man involved in such senseless, grisly activities.
Death row interviews give inmates an opportunity to offer some level of contrition.
Cooey wouldn't have any part of that. I tried.
"The family has said they haven't heard an apology on this," I said at one point. "Have you tried to apologize on this? ... Are you going to give a final statement?"
"I'm not going to respond to none of that type of stuff," he replied. "I'm not going to answer stuff like that."
Not that it would matter much. I don't think people affected by this case care what Cooey has to say.
Ohio killer wants new sentence under injection law « Reply #11 on Sept 25, 2008, 11:38am »
Ohio killer wants new sentence under injection law
Associated Press - September 22, 2008 9:45 PM ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A killer facing the first execution in Ohio in more than a year says he can't be put to death by injection because he was sentenced to die by electric chair.
Richard Cooey is requesting a new sentencing hearing under current execution law and a chance to present more evidence that he shouldn't be put to death.
The state outlawed the electric chair in 2001 and made lethal injection the sole means of execution in Ohio. The electric chair hasn't been used in the state since 1963.
In the request filed in Summit County Common Pleas Court, Cooey also says he wasn't allowed to properly present evidence of a brutal childhood at his original sentencing in 1986.
Cooey is scheduled to die Oct. 14. Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh calls the filing a delay tactic and says she'll fight it.
Cooey has also sued in federal court arguing he has poor vein access, a problem made worse by his obesity.
Judges reject Ohio killer's plea for new sentence « Reply #12 on Sept 30, 2008, 9:35am »
Judges reject Ohio killer's plea for new sentence September 29, 2008 17:55 EDT
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A panel of judges has rejected a request for a new sentencing hearing by a killer facing the first execution in Ohio in more than a year.
Earlier this month, Richard Cooey had requested a new sentencing hearing in Summit County under current lethal injection execution law. He also wants a chance to present more evidence that he shouldn't be put to death.
Cooey says he deserves the new hearing because he was sentenced to die by electrocution but the state outlawed the electric chair in 2001 in favor of injection.
The three judge panel disagreed Monday and says Cooey hadn't put forward an argument with any chance of succeeding.
The panel also says Cooey waited far too long to argue about the method of execution. Cooey's original sentencing was in 1986.
Ohio to reinstate death penalty « Reply #13 on Oct 7, 2008, 11:22am »
Ohio to reinstate death penalty
- Page *1* of 1
Unless something is done, on Oct. 14 Ohio will end its de facto moratorium on executions and put Richard Cooey to death. The resumption of government-authoriz ed murder in our state forces us to reflect on the righteousness of capital punishment and its use as public policy.
We are a nation obsessed with the idea and execution of justice. And though I sympathize greatly with the families of Dawn McCreery and Wendy Jo Offredo, the execution of Cooey will not bring any justice; instead we gain only cheap revenge and another family victimized by violence.
The death penalty should be evaluated, as all public policy should, on whether it betters society. Capital punishment does not protect society any more than life without parole. In both cases the convicted murderer is isolated from society and restricted from doing any more harm. In addition, the idea that the state's execution of a murderer causes other potential killers to stay their hand has never been proved. Indeed, an overwhelming number of criminologists believe that no such deterrent effect exists. Clear evidence seems to demonstrate the opposite of deterrence. In 2006, states with the death penalty have had a 40% higher murder rate than non-death penalty states and this gap has been widening over the last 18 years.
In addition, the only region of the U.S. to see an increase in the murder rate over the last seven years is the South, the same region that hosts 86 percent of the nation's executions.
Just as the death penalty saves no lives, it also saves society no money. Depending on the study, the death penalty costs taxpayers anywhere from $100,000 to $2.16 million more per case than life imprisonment without parole. New Jersey found that since 1983 capital punishment has cost taxpayers $253 million.
If you believe that the inherent value and justice that the death penalty gives is worth this price, I ask you to examine our broken system a little more closely.
Innocent people have been sentenced to death. Since 1973, 130 people have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to die; five of them were from Ohio. These numbers only include those who were lucky enough to be exonerated before their execution (after execution, the state does not investigate claims of innocence). How many innocent people we have executed is unknown, and will never be known.
The death penalty is also not executed fairly or consistently. Factors such as race, location and economic well-being often come into play. This is especially clear in Ohio. According to the American Bar Association, those who kill whites are 3.8 times more likely to receive the death penalty than those who kill blacks. In addition, the chances of a murderer receiving the death penalty in Hamilton County are 2.7 times higher than the rest of the state and 6.2 times higher than in Franklin County. Perhaps most important in deciding a murderer's chances in receiving the death penalty is his or her ability to afford a good lawyer. Those who do not have such resources are assigned defense attorneys who, according to the ABA, are often under-qualified and under-paid.
Those who feel strongly about this misuse of justice should write to Governor Strickland and ask him to stop the upcoming execution of Richard Cooey. You can write to him at The Governor's Office, Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 S. High St., Columbus, OH 43215, or call his office at 614-466-3555. Unless we do something, our state will murder again.
Stop the Execution of Richard Cooey, scheduled for « Reply #14 on Oct 10, 2008, 8:37pm »
Stop the Execution of Richard Cooey, scheduled for Tues., Oct. 14
Ohio is about to resume its legalized murder known as executions and the first execution since the U. S. Supreme Court decided that lethal injection was not cruel and unusual punishment is that of Richard Wade Cooey, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Please contact Goveornor Strickland. Urge him on whatever basis is right for you to halt the execution of Richard Cooey. You may refer to the many problems and injustices in the Ohio death-penalty system, as found by both the American Bar Association and the Associated Press in separate investigations, and to emphasize that executing anyone before the state itself has studied these problems would be wrong. You needn't say or write more than a few sentences.
Governor Strickland: Phone: 614-466-3555 Fax: 614-466-9354 Webmail: www.governor.ohio.gov --> Click on "Contact" in the upper-right- hand corner --> Click on "Contact the Governor" in brown letters under "Online" and fill out the brief info form and the message space.
For those who feel they need more information on the particulars of Richard Cooey's case, go to the website of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty at infor@ncadp. org and scroll down in the right hand column until you find his name and the date, Oct. 14. Clicking on that will bring up an abbreviated version of Amnesty International' s report with a link to the full report.
« Last Edit: Oct 14, 2008, 10:11am by thinkinkmesa »
Inmate blames prison food for his obesity « Reply #15 on Oct 10, 2008, 8:42pm »
Inmate blames prison food for his obesity
OCTOBER 9, 2008
CINCINNATI (AP) - Lawyers for a death row inmate scheduled to die by lethal injection next week are simultaneously pressing challenges in state and federal courts in attempts to head off the execution.
Richard Cooey, 41, is scheduled to be executed Oct. 14 for killing two University of Akron students in 1986. It would be the first execution in the state in a year and the first in Ohio since the end of a de facto moratorium while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky's lethal injection procedure.
Cooey's attorneys said in briefs filed Tuesday with the Ohio Supreme Court and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the state is partly responsible for Cooey's physical problems that might make his death unnecessarily painful. Cooey stands 5-foot, 7 inches tall and weighs 267 pounds.
State attorneys responded Wednesday, telling the high court that Cooey's lawyers are deploying delay tactics that have no legal basis.
Cooey has raised the obesity issue before. In his appeal, his lawyers say prison food and limited opportunities to exercise contributed to the weight problem, and that could make it difficult for the execution team to find a viable vein for lethal injection.
In the appeal, Cooey does not contend that Ohio's lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional but that as applied to him, because of his atypical physical and medical conditions, it will result in an inhumane execution.
State attorneys argue that all of Cooey's claims are invalid because he missed an earlier filing deadline even though he knew an execution team might have trouble finding a viable vein.
Inmate hopes local ruling will stop his execution « Reply #16 on Oct 10, 2008, 8:45pm »
Inmate hopes local ruling will stop his execution Brad Dicken | The Chronicle-Telegram
October 10, 2008 ELYRIA — Ohio death row inmate Richard Cooey is hoping Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge’s ruling that the state’s current lethal injection process violates Ohio law will help him stave off his execution scheduled for Tuesday.
Cooey’s attorneys filed a motion Thursday asking that he be allowed to join in the 9th District Court of Appeals case that will review Burge’s decision from earlier this year.
Burge’s decision was supposed to only apply to accused killers Ruben Rivera and Ronald McCloud, who could both face execution if convicted in separate Lorain murders, but Cooey now wants it to apply to him as well.
Burge ruled that the state’s current lethal injection protocols are unconstitutional, saying they violated an Ohio law that requires executions to be quick and painless.
The three-drug thingytail used by the state — a sedative followed by a drug that paralyzes a condemned inmate before the final drug stops his heart — doesn’t guarantee that the death won’t be painful, Burge found after hearing from two expert witnesses.
Attorneys for Rivera and McCloud had argued that if the sedative wasn’t administered properly, the dying inmate could awaken before the other drugs had killed him, leaving him paralyzed and suffering horribly from suffocation and a heart attack.
Instead, Burge ordered the state to use a single dose of the sedative, which the experts agreed is strong enough to kill on its own without the other two drugs. Both the state and attorneys for Rivera and McCloud have appealed the decision. The state argues that its execution process is humane, while defense attorneys say Burge didn’t go far enough and should have thrown out the death penalty as a possible sentence.
Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will said he doesn’t believe Cooey can oin in the legal fight over Burge’s decision.
“Do I think there’s a basis for it? No,” Will said.
Cooey is facing execution for the 1986 murders of University of Akron students Dawn McCreery, 22, of North Ridgeville, and Wendy Offredo, 21. His accomplice in the murder, Clint Dickens, who was a juvenile at the time, is serving a life prison sentence.
Also Thursday, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court rejected arguments that the 5-foot, 7-inch, 267-pound Cooey was too obese to be executed.
The 41-year-old convicted killer’s attorneys have argued that prison food and limited opportunities to exercise would make it difficult for the execution team to find a suitable vein to administer the fatal drugs.
Cooey has been fighting hard against his execution for years and lost a federal lawsuit in which he argued that the state’s lethal injection methods were unconstitutionally cruel and unusual.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet. com.
Inmate scheduled to die 22 years after murder « Reply #17 on Oct 13, 2008, 6:26am »
Inmate scheduled to die 22 years after murder
By Tom Beyerlein Staff Writer Sunday, October 12, 2008
Just after midnight on Sept. 1, 1986, University of Akron sorority sisters Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery finished their shifts at the Brown Derby Restaurant in Montrose, hopped into Offredo's car and set off on Interstate 77.
That same night, Richard Cooey, an army soldier home on leave, and two friends were engaged in vicious horseplay, dropping chunks of concrete off the Stoner Street bridge onto I-77 traffic. Clinton Dickens dropped the concrete that hit Offredo's car and forced her to pull off the road.
The three men offered the women help and lured them into Cooey's car. Then Cooey and Dickens raped, robbed, beat and strangled the young women — the third man demanded to be let out of the car before the violence began — and dumped their bodies in a woods. Offredo, 21, and McCreery, 20, each had an X carved into her abdomen.
"This crime is one of the most brutal we've ever seen in Summit County," said the county prosecutor, Sherri Bevan Walsh. "These were really fabulous girls whose lives were cut way too short."
After appeals that have gone on for 22 years — longer than the entire lives of either of the victims, Walsh pointed out — Cooey is to be executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Lucasville Tuesday morning, Oct. 14. Barring a last-minute court order, Cooey, now 41, will be first Ohio inmate to be put to death since May 2007. Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday rejected Cooey's plea for clemency.
Cooey was one of several Ohio inmates who argued in court that the three-drug lethal injection protocol used in most states is cruel and unusual punishment because it could result in agonizing pain masked by a paralyzing drug. There was an unofficial moratorium on executions across the country as the states waited to see the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar case in Kentucky. The court in April upheld Kentucky's protocol.
Last week, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected Cooey's contention that at 5-foot-7 and 267 pounds he is too fat to be executed constitutionally, because his obesity could prevent executioners from finding a viable vein for the lethal injection. Similar arguments were rejected in federal appeals court.
Richard Cooey bragged about the killings of University of Akron sorority sisters Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery to friends and had some of the victims' possessions when he was arrested.
He admits he was involved but says he didn't commit murder. Another man with him after midnight on Sept. 1, 1986, Clinton Dickens, beat the women to death, Cooey says.
Dickens was convicted of aggravated murder and other crimes and sentenced to life in prison but could not get the death penalty because he was a minor at the time of the killings.
"Yeah, I did kidnappings, robberies and other stuff in my case. I didn't beat nobody in my case. I didn't do no murders in my case," Cooey said in a death row interview Sept. 9. "I'm guilty as hell of what I did ... I'm not saying I should be walking the streets."
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said Cooey has never expressed remorse and has been anything but a model prisoner. In 2005, using a ladder he made out of bedsheets and magazines, he escaped from death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution before being caught between two fences. As recently as July 24, he threatened a prison staff member.
Cooey was to be executed in 2003, but was spared by a court order 12 hours before he was to die.
"We're hopeful that after 22 years, the courts will finally put an end to all these appeals and allow this execution to go forward," Walsh said.
Ohio death row inmate arrives at execution site « Reply #18 on Oct 14, 2008, 10:02am »
Ohio death row inmate arrives at execution site Associated Press - October 13, 2008 11:45 AM ET
CINCINNATI (AP) - An Ohio death row inmate scheduled to be executed Tuesday for killing two college students in 1986 is waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on his appeal.
Officials on Monday transferred 41-year-old Richard Cooey from a Youngstown prison to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, where Cooey is to die by lethal injection.
The Ohio Supreme Court and a federal appeals in Cincinnati have declined to grant Cooey a stay of execution based in his claim that he is too fat to be executed humanely. His attorneys say the weight problem could make it difficult for prison staff to access a suitable vein to deliver the deadly chemicals.
Cooey would be the first Ohio inmate put to death in more than a year. He and a co-defendant were convicted of killing two female students at the University of Akron.
Ohio Supreme Court denies stay of execution for Co « Reply #19 on Oct 14, 2008, 10:04am »
Ohio Supreme Court denies stay of execution for Cooey By Beacon Journal staff
POSTED: 03:26 p.m. EDT, Oct 13, 2008
The Ohio Supreme Court this afternoon denied a motion from convicted double murderer Richard Cooey to stay his execution, scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
A court spared Cooey, of Akron, five years ago, when he was just 12 hours from execution.
Killer has what might be last meal « Reply #20 on Oct 14, 2008, 11:08am »
Killer has what might be last meal Richard Wade Cooey set to be executed today for 1986 murders of two young Akron women
By Phil Trexler Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Oct 14, 2008
LUCASVILLE: Richard Wade Cooey spent perhaps his last Monday on Earth, eating steak, visiting with his attorneys and reading the Bible.
At a hotel down the road, the family of one of his victims held out hope that this meal will indeed be Cooey's last after 22 years on Ohio's death row.
Prison officials, meanwhile, are bracing for demonstrators, but not the kind typical of executions.
Spokeswoman Andrea Carson said pro-execution demonstrators arriving by bus from Akron are expected to stand outside the prison walls during the execution.
Carson said the state prison office and the Ohio Parole Board have received many calls and e-mails regarding Cooey. Most, she said, favor his death.
''There's a lot of emotion surrounding this case from the Akron community, a lot of emotion,'' she said.
Cooey is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. today.
Five years ago, the family of Dawn McCreery gathered inside the same hotel, awaiting Cooey's execution. An 11th-hour stay bought the condemned man more time to fight his death and sent the McCreery family home frustrated.
Today might bring a different conclusion. His attorneys said Monday he appears to be out of options.
Cooey, 41, was sentenced to die for the 1986 kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of McCreery and her University of Akron sorority sister, Wendy Offredo.
He arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility about 9:45 a.m. Monday in preparation for his death. He was given a medical and psychological evaluation.
Carson said an assessment of Cooey's arms revealed two viable veins sufficient for the lethal injections.
Part of Cooey's appeals have been based on his contention that his obesity would complicate the injection process due to poor vein access. He argued that Ohio could not execute him without causing undue pain.
''They were able to see two good veins [Monday],'' Carson said.
About 4 p.m., the 270-pound Cooey was served his last meal: a T-bone steak with A-1 sauce, onion rings, french fries, four eggs over easy, toast with butter, hash browns, rocky road ice cream and bear claw pastry. He drank Mountain Dew.
In 2003, Cooey was also served a last meal, which consisted of a rib-eye steak (medium), two eggs sunny side up, toast with butter, a cheeseburger with the works, onion rings, french fries, two slices of banana cream pie and a couple of 2-liter bottles of Dr Pepper. Later that evening, a federal judge granted his request for a stay of execution.
McCreery's family was jarred then by the delay.
The family held out hope for closure Monday night as the clock wound down. At the hotel, about a dozen relatives were gathered. They spent the evening reminiscing about Dawn and the past 22 years.
Robert McCreery Jr., the victim's brother, said he's been asked how he will feel, if the execution is carried out. He was 17 when his sister, 20, and Offredo, 21, were killed by Cooey and accomplice Clint Dickens.
''I can't answer that question until [it happens],'' he said. ''Hopefully, we'll all be relieved, but I just won't know until [today]. I've spent most of my adult life waiting for this thing to happen.''
Final visits
In Lucasville, Cooey was visited by his attorney, Dana Cole, and Cole's brother, James, who serves as a spiritual adviser.
Amy Borrow, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Defender's Office, said Cooey's appeals to the Ohio and U.S. Supreme courts were both denied Monday. She did not anticipate any additional appeals filed before the execution.
''At this point, it looks like we are out of options,'' Borrow said.
Carson said that no one from Cooey's family is expected to visit the prison before the execution. Some family visited with him last week on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary, she said.
Cooey will remain in the state death house through the execution process. He has a phone and can watch local television, but not cable. He is to be awakened by 6 a.m. today.
New prison warden Phillip Kerns is scheduled to read the death warrant about 9:50 a.m. Kerns will be overseeing his first execution. Ohio has executed 26 inmates since resuming the practice in 1999.
Just before 10 a.m., the state's execution team will attempt to insert shunts into Cooey's arms before he is moved to the execution chamber. Carson said there would be no ''artificial time restraints'' placed on the staff attempting to insert the shunts into Cooey's veins.
Family to observe
Six members of McCreery's family are expected to witness the execution along with several media members, prison officials and three of Cooey's attorneys. Offredo's family declined to attend.
Cooey has asked that his body be cremated, at taxpayer expense, and his ashes given to his attorney, Dana Cole. Cole was unable to say last week where the ashes would be spread.
Cooey was compliant and in a ''very good mood'' after his arrival in Lucasville, Carson said.
''He was very conversant with his spiritual adviser,'' she said. ''He didn't have a blue mood or a down mood. He's in a good mood.'' http://www.ohio.com/news/30930834.html
« Last Edit: Oct 14, 2008, 11:13am by thinkinkmesa »
Richard Wade Cooey II today became the 27th man « Reply #21 on Oct 14, 2008, 11:14am »
Richard Wade Cooey II today became the 27th man to be put to death since Ohio reinstated executions in 1999.
At 10:16 a.m., he was placed on a gurney to be given a lethal combination of sodium pentothal to induce deep sleep, pancuronium bromide to stop his breathing, and potassium chloride to stop his heart. The mixture flowed into his body through IV tubes in his arm.
Time of death: 10:28 a.m.
Phillip Kerns, warden at the Southern Ohio Corrections Facility in Lucasville, offered Cooey a microphone in the death chamber shortly before the execution, for Cooey's final statement.
"Why?" Cooey asked. "You haven't listened to anything I've had to say in the last 22 years. What's to say I have anything to say now?"
The 41-year-old inmate had been on death row since 1986 for his role in the rape and murder of two University of Akron students. He always maintained that his accomplice committed the murders.
Three of his lawyers -- Dana Cole, Eric Allen and Greg Meyers -- witnessed the execution. On the other side of the witness area -- separated from Cooey's lawyers by a partial wall -- were six members of the family of one of his victims, 20-year-old Dawn McCreery.
Also witnessing were six members of the media and several prison staffers.
On Sept.1, 1986, Cooey and accomplice Clint Dickens dropped a chunk of concrete off an overpass on I-77, disabling a car driven by 21-year-old University of Akron student Wendy Offredo.
The men then drove onto the highway and offered assistance to Offredo and her friend and passenger, McCreery. Instead, Cooey and Dickens drove the girls to a secluded field in Norton, raped them for hours, then bludgeoned them with a wooden club and strangled them with a shoelace.
Cooey was prepared for the execution today in a room adjacent to the death chamber. He was on his back on a gurney, with his feet crossed, as intravenous tubes were inserted into his arms. He yelled out for his lawyer during the process.
"I want to talk to Greg Myers," he shouted. He lifted his head and yelled, "Hey, Myers." But his lawyer was in the witness room and unable to speak with him.
At 10:15, Cooey kicked his legs up and left the gurney, then walked on his own into the death chamber to climb onto another gurney. The warden and one guard stood at Cooey's head while the drugs were injected.
At 10:20, Cooey was strumming his fingers, pinky to index fingers, waiting. He exhaled heavily at 10:21, and the warden shook Cooey's shoulder to see if the sleep drug had taken effect. Cooey did not respond.
At 10:27 a.m., the guard drew a curtain around Cooey. McCreery's mother, Mary Ann Hackenburg, threw her head back and exhaled into the air. At 10:29, the curtain was drawn back, and the time of death was announced.
During his final night, Cooey went to sleep at 4:06 a.m. today and awoke, on his own, at 5:20 a.m. He showered and refused breakfast after eating his specially requested meal much of Monday evening.
Andrea Carson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said Cooey was quiet most of the night, sitting on his bed and occasionally pacing. He tried to call a friend, but the call didn't go through.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal this morning. The court rejected without comment Cooey's claim that Ohio's lethal injection method could cause a painful death.
The court already had rejected his claim that he is too fat to be humanely executed by lethal injection because his obesity would make it too hard for prison officials to find a vein.
Cooey executed by lethal injection « Reply #22 on Oct 14, 2008, 11:17am »
Cooey executed by lethal injection By Phil Trexler Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 10:44 a.m. EDT, Oct 14, 2008
Richard Wade Cooey was executed at 10:28 this morning for the murders of two University of Akron students 22 years ago.
His final statement was: ''You [expletive] have not paid attention to anything I've had to say for the past 22 years. Why would you pay attention to anything I have to say now?''
Cooey paced for much of the night, sleeping for less than 90 minutes and turning down breakfast as his execution drew near.
Cooey's attorneys arrived at the prison this morning, but a spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Defender's Office last night said that he appeared out of appeal options.
Cooey, 41, formerly of Akron, was sentenced to die in 1986 for the murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery, two UA juniors. He was within 12 hours of being executed in 2003 before a judge granted him a stay.
Prison spokeswoman Andrea Carson told reporters this morning that Cooey was quiet overnight inside the death house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
He finished his last meal around midnight, appeared sleepless, and paced his cell. Around 4:06 a.m., he fell asleep only to awaken at 5:20 a.m. He showered and is visiting now with his attorneys.
About 9:50 a.m., Warden Phillip Kerns approached Cooey and read the state's death warrant. Cooey was then fitted with shunts in each arm that were used to transfer the lethal drugs into his system.
Re: Ohio, Richard Cooey, Ohio executes Richard Coo « Reply #23 on Oct 14, 2008, 11:39am »
Ohio executes Richard Cooey
Published:Tuesday, October 14, 2008
LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Ohio on Tuesday executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer who argued he was too fat to die humanely by lethal injection, the state’s first execution since the end of an unofficial national moratorium.
Richard Cooey, 41, died at 10:28 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
There were no immediate reports of problems finding suitable veins to deliver the deadly chemicals, a problem that delayed previous executions in the state.
Cooey’s attorneys had argued that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein. A prisons spokeswoman said Cooey received a pre-execution exam early Tuesday and was cleared.
Cooey, who killed two University of Akron students in 1986, walked into the death chamber at 10:15 a.m. wearing gray pants and was strapped onto the gurney.
“You (expletive) haven’t paid any attention to anything I’ve said in the last 22 1/2 years, why would anyone pay any attention to anything I’ve had to say now,” Cooey said looking at the ceiling. He made no other comment.
Cooey tapped the fingers of his left hand several times before he died and his face took on a purple shade.
Six family members of one of his victims watched the execution. Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said the family was disappointed that Cooey was vulgar and hateful at the end.
Cooey was the first inmate executed in Ohio in more than a year, and the state’s first since the end of the unofficial moratorium on executions that began last year while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure.
Before the moratorium, Ohio had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers.
Cooey lost a final appeal earlier Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court turned down without comment his complaint that the state’s protocol for lethal injection could cause an agonizing and painful death. Cooey wanted the state to use a single drug rather than a three-drug combination, and asked for a stay of execution pending a hearing on that motion.
The court on Monday denied a separate appeal based on Cooey’s claim that his obesity was a bar to humane lethal injection. The argument also had been rejected by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati and the Ohio Supreme Court, with both courts ruling that he missed a deadline for filing appeals.
Cooey is 75 pounds heavier than when he went to death row — the result of prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement, his lawyers said.
They also argued that a migraine medicine prescribed by a prison physician could reduce the effect of the anesthetic used as part of the three-drug lethal injection.
Execution by lethal injection is a calculated proc « Reply #24 on Oct 15, 2008, 10:10am »
OH - Execution by lethal injection is a calculated process devoid of
Execution by lethal injection is a calculated process devoid of theatrics Richard Cooey was put to death Tuesday morning for the slaying of two Akron coeds in 1986.
By Tom Beyerlein
Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
LUCASVILLE — A black hearse was parked in a courtyard just outside the death house Tuesday morning, Oct. 14. A silver-haired driver was at the wheel, waiting for the healthy man inside the house to be put to death and brought out on a gurney.
This macabre scenario has become almost routine at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
Richard Cooey's execution was much like the 26 others that have preceded it since 1999, when Ohio resumed executions after a 36-year hiatus. It's a chillingly calculated process, one that is typically devoid of theatrics.
For Dana Cole of Akron, who described himself as Cooey's attorney and friend, capital punishment is a cold-blooded exercise that brings society down to the level of the condemned murderer. After the execution, Cole said Cooey's killing was premeditated by the state for 22 years, since he was convicted of the gruesome double murder of University of Akron sorority sisters Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery.
Cole said the man who was executed Tuesday "bore no resemblance" to the 19-year-old soldier who committed the crimes in 1986.
For McCreery's family, it was disappointing that Cooey never expressed remorse or admitted responsibility for the murders, which he blamed on a co-defendant. Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who spoke for the family, said they were frustrated that it took 22 years of appeals before justice was done.
Ohio's execution process mirrors that of many states. Intravenous shunts are inserted in each arm.
The inmate is led into the execution chamber, where he lies on a table that can accommodate his outstretched arms. Plastic tubing is attached to the shunts.
The warden gives the inmate a chance to make a final statement. Then, at a signal from the warden, chemicals begin flowing through the tubing and into the inmate's veins. The first drug puts him into a sleep state, the second one stops his breathing and the third stops his heart. There is very little physical reaction to the drugs — the inmate's chest may heave a few times. As death occurs, the face can take on a purplish cast. At one point in Cooey's execution, Warden Phillip Kerns approached him and appeared to touch him, perhaps to be certain Cooey was unconscious as the process continued.
There are six newspaper, television and radio reporters chosen to bear witness to the state's ultimate punishment. Three witnesses each can be selected by the killer and by the victim's family.
In Cooey's case, Offredo's family decided not to witness, and gave their seats to McCreery's family, which had six members present.
None of Cooey's family visited him at Lucasville or witnessed his execution.
The hearse was to take his body to a local mortuary, where he would be cremated at state expense. Dana Cole was to be given Cooey's ashes, prisons spokeswoman Andrea Carson said.
Family's wait for Cooey's execution ends « Reply #25 on Oct 15, 2008, 10:24am »
Family's wait for Cooey's execution ends
Prison staff finds veins in convicted murderer who claimed he was too fat for lethal injection
By Phil Trexler Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Wednesday, Oct 15, 2008
LUCASVILLE: Twenty-five people gathered in a cramped, concrete-walled room to watch Richard Wade Cooey take his last breath.
Some 8,079 days after he raped and brutally killed two University of Akron sorority sisters, Cooey was executed Tuesday morning by the state of Ohio.
To his supporters, his death for committing one of the most heinous crimes in Akron history came too soon. To the family of one of his victims, the 22-year wait for his final 17 steps was way too long.
''It's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen,'' said Mary Ann Hackenberg, the mother of Dawn McCreery, as she entered the death-house viewing area with five other family members.
The family of Wendy Offredo declined to attend.
McCreery, 20, and Offredo, 21, were raped and then beaten to death on Sept. 1, 1986, by Cooey and his accomplice, Clint Dickens.
Although Cooey contended he was too fat to execute, it took just about five minutes for the state's execution team to pierce shunts into the 270-pound man's arms.
His image was viewed on the prison's closed-circuit TV and shown to witnesses inside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
''First time we've seen him since the trial,'' Hackenberg said to her family.
As the execution team worked to find a vein, Cooey became agitated.
''I want to talk to Greg Meyers,'' Cooey yelled while lying on a table.
Meyers was one of Cooey's public defenders, who had filed appeals arguing that his obesity and poor veins made death by lethal injection problematic.
But the team soon located veins, attached the shunt and secured them with Ace bandages. Cooey then began his walk into the execution chamber.
As he approached the gurney, he glanced only briefly at McCreery's family, who sat in six chairs on the other side of a large window. Surrounding the family were reporters, victim advocates and prison officials.
Cooey's three attorneys and a spiritual adviser were seated on the opposite end of the room, separated from McCreery's family by a partition.
Cooey, 41, was compliant as prison workers placed four straps over his body and straps on each arm.
Final words
Warden Phillip Kerns then put a microphone near Cooey's mouth as the condemned man looked up at the ceiling. Kerns asked if Cooey wanted to make a statement.
''For what?'' Cooey said angrily. ''You [expletive] haven't paid attention to what I've had to say over the past 22 years. Why are you going to pay attention to what I have to say now?''
With that, at 10:20 a.m. the warden signaled the start of the flow of drugs. One put Cooey to sleep, a second paralyzed him, and a third stopped his heart. Cooey tapped his fingers on the gurney as the process unfolded.
The witness room fell silent. The only sounds were from reporters scribbling notes and the growl of empty stomachs.
By 10:28 a.m., Cooey was pronounced dead.
Hackenberg hugged her son, Robert McCreery Jr., seated to her right, and her former husband, Robert McCreery Sr., who sat to her left. The three were about 10 feet away from Cooey.
The family declined to speak afterward. Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who came to Lucasville for the execution, talked to the family.
Walsh said the McCreerys were disappointed that Cooey again failed to apologize or show any remorse. ''Instead, he was vulgar and hateful until the end,'' Walsh said.
Murders in 1986
Cooey was 19 and on leave from the Army when he and Dickens, 17, tossed rocks from an overpass onto Interstate 77 near Copley Road. After one of the rocks disabled Offredo's car, the two robbed, abducted, raped and then strangled and beat Offredo and McCreery to death. Cooey and Dickens carved an X into the abdomen of each woman and dumped their bodies in Norton.
Cooey was arrested within days after bragging to friends and trying to pawn the women's jewelry.
He has denied killing the women, contending it was Dickens who delivered the fatal blows.
As a juvenile, Dickens was not eligible for the death penalty. He is serving a life sentence.
Cooey had appealed his case ever since his conviction in December 1986.
In 2003, he was within 12 hours of being executed before a federal judge granted him a stay. Dana Cole, a UA law professor and one of Cooey's attorneys who witnessed the death, said Cooey came to terms with his inevitable execution Monday night, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal.
Cooey slept less than 90 minutes overnight, awakening about 5:20 a.m. and showering. He declined breakfast and visited with his attorneys.
Cooey's body will be cremated and Cole, Cole's brother James, and attorney Eric Allen intend to take the ashes to Ireland, as Cooey requested.
Cole criticized Ohio's use of the death penalty, saying Cooey had changed and was loved by his family, friends and lawyers.
''The crimes that Rick committed, he committed as an immature 19-year- old influenced by drugs and alcohol,'' Dana Cole said. ''We like to pretend that we're somehow better than Rick. But what we witnessed here today was a killing that was planned and funded for more than 22 years. The man killed was not the same man who committed these crimes.'' Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconj ournal.com.
Ohio executes inmate who argued was too fat to die « Reply #26 on Oct 16, 2008, 9:45am »
Ohio executes inmate who argued was too fat to die By MATT REED – 15 hours ago http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gFFSx-Ym77E8r1IIgRpnOVf7ygVgD93QI0TG0 LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — The first inmate to die by lethal injection in Ohio in more than a year argued to the end that his obesity would make it difficult for prison staff to find suitable veins in his arms to deliver the deadly chemicals.
During preparations for his execution Tuesday, Richard Cooey shouted for one of his attorneys as prison staff tried to insert a shunt in his left arm.
"He was worried that we were on the brink of another botched execution," said Greg Meyers, an attorney with the Ohio Public Defender's Office.
There were no difficulties, said Larry Greene, a spokesman for the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where Cooey was executed for killing two University of Akron students in 1986. His was the first of two executions scheduled Tuesday; an inmate was scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening in Texas.
Cooey, who stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 267 pounds, said in numerous legal filings that his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane. Problems finding veins on other inmates had delayed previous executions in Ohio.
Cooey, who earlier in the day lost a final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, had little to say when offered the chance to make a final statement.
"For what? You (expletive) haven't paid any attention to anything I've said in the last 22 1/2 years, why would anyone pay any attention to anything I've had to say now," Cooey said looking at the ceiling.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said the family of Mary Ann Hackenberg, who was 20 when she was killed, was disappointed that Cooey was vulgar and hateful to the end.
"He still would not apologize and still would not accept responsibility for what he did," she said.
Three of Cooey's lawyers served as his witnesses.
"The government has no conscience, only policy. Today, the policy was state-sanctioned murder of Richard Cooey," said one of the lawyers, Eric Allen.
Cooey was the first inmate executed in Ohio since the end of an unofficial moratorium on executions that began last year while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky's lethal injection procedure.
In east Texas, a former truck repair shop owner convicted of fatally shooting a 22-month-old boy in a spree that also killed the child's parents headed to the death chamber Tuesday evening.
Alvin Kelly, 57, denied any involvement in the 1984 slayings in Gregg County, although he had confessed to a previous killing and was in prison for that conviction when he was charged in the triple murder.
Kelly would be the 10th Texas prisoner executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
He said with his previous murder conviction, plus convictions for burglary, weapons possession, controlled substance delivery and possession and aggravated sexual assault, "I didn't stand a chance."
"I still love Texas," he said. "I love bluebonnets. Texas didn't put me here. I put me here, by my lifestyle. I'm not pious. I'm not holy. I'm an old sinner."
Also Tuesday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for a Georgia man to be put to death for killing a police officer, despite calls from his supporters to reconsider the case because seven of nine key witnesses against him have recanted their testimony.
The high court granted Troy Davis a reprieve Sept. 23, less than two hours before his scheduled execution. But the justices declined Tuesday to give his appeal a full-blown hearing, clearing the last hurdle toward his death by lethal injection.
It was not immediately clear when his execution will take place.
Davis, 39, was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of a 27-year- old Savannah police officer. But doubts about his guilt and a high- profile publicity campaign have won him the support of prominent advocates including former President Jimmy Carter and South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Witnesses identified Davis as the shooter. At his 1991 trial, prosecutors said he wore a "smirk on his face" as he fired the gun.
But Davis' lawyers say new evidence proves their client was a victim of mistaken identity.
Davis' legal team said it was frantically searching for other recourse but acknowledged that those prospects seem dim.
Associated Press writers Greg Bluestein from Atlanta, Michael Graczyk from Huntsville, Texas, and Mark Sherman from Washington contributed to this report
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