Jason Getsy

[thinkinkmesa]

The last day on death row

WARREN - Hubbard killer Jason Getsy's final 24 hours alive will be constantly monitored, according to rules and policies spelled out in explicit detail by Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Getsy, 33, is set to die by lethal injection Tuesday in Ohio's Death Chamber at the Southern Correctional Facility in Lucasville. If he is put to death, he would be the first from Trumbull County.

The inmate was to be transported to the Lucasville facility by today, within 24 hours of Tuesday's 10 a.m. execution, according to prison policy.

Getsy was 19 years old when he murdered Ann Serafino, 66, and nearly killed Serafino's son Chuck on July 7, 1995, in a murder-for-hire scheme triggered by disputes over a Hubbard landscaping business.

He had argued for clemency last month before the Ohio Parole Board and temporarily had won a 5-2 decision from the board that recommended he be given clemency, largely because his co-defendants had received lesser sentences.

Friday, however, Gov. Ted Strickland refused the parole board's recommendation and denied clemency, setting into action Getsy's impending execution.

Getsy might have one last hope at delaying his death as he awaits word from the U.S. Supreme Court, which could agree to hear an appeal on a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week that determined his last ditch attempt to argue that Ohio's execution process equated to cruel and unusual punishment was filed too late.

In his plea for clemency on June 30, Getsy had claimed he was already at peace with a life or death option. If he were allowed to live, he said he would continue spreading the word of God in a prison ministry he wanted to launch while in the general population of the prison system.

Instead, early today Getsy is scheduled to be transferred from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, where death row is located, to the Southern Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

As Getsy is being preped for his execution in the state of Ohio's Death House Tuesday morning, opponents of the death penalty are planning to gather in prayer at 8:30 a.m. in Warren's Courthouse Square Park.

Witnesses, including up to three from the Getsy family, the Serafino family and statewide media are expected to arrive in Lucasville Monday, according to Jo Ellen Culp, spokewoman for the Department of Corrections.

Under rules spelled out in a 10-page policy on executions, Getsy's last 24 hours will be constantly monitored by at least three members of the execution team. They will maintain a detailed log including such things as final visitors, movement, mood changes, meals, showers and telephone calls.

Getsy also will be interviewed periodically by a mental health professional, and counseling and spiritual support will be offered.

The execution team will inventory Getsy's property in front of Getsy. By then he should have specified previously who should receive his personal effects. Getsy also will specify in writing his request for funeral arrangements.

According to the policy, around 4 p.m. today Getsy will receive his last meal, as per his request, and then may have final visits with his family today and early Tuesday morning.

About an hour before Getsy's scheduled execution Tuesday morning he will be permitted to shower and dress in designated clothing.

About 15 minutes before the scheduled execution, the warden shall read the death Warrant to Getsy. Medical staff will insert the IVs into two locations in his arms, and he will be escorted to the death chamber and be secured to the table. He will be allowed to make a final statement before the lethal injection is administered.

Reporters are scheduled to be briefed at 4:30 p.m. today inside the prison and then at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday when they will find out any special last meal requests by Getsy and his demeanor. Culp also said information will include who he calls or communicates with, including church or religious representatives.

Getsy had formally turned down any interviews with reporters up until Sunday.

Getsy would be the first death row inmate out of 10 from Trumbull County executed since Ohio reinstituted the death penalty in 1981.

Two death row inmates have been executed in the meantime.

A second death row inmate from Trumbull County, Kenneth Biros, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 8. He was convicted of killing Tami Engstrom, 22, of Hubbard, and leaving her remains in parts of Ohio and western Pennsylvania Feb. 7, 1991.

[e-mail]
www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/526118.html?nav=5021

Comment section follows article.

[thinkinkmesa]

LUCASVILLE, Ohio — The triggerman in a murder-for-hire scheme has filed a last-minute appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his scheduled execution in Ohio.

Jason Getsy, whose execution is Tuesday, asked the nation’s high court Monday to allow him to challenge Ohio’s lethal injection system as cruel and unusual punishment.

Earlier in the day, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Getsy’s request to have his case reheard before the full court.

A panel of the appeals court voted 2-1 last week to deny the appeal, saying it was filed too late.

The 33-year-old Getsy was sentenced to die for shooting 66-year-old Ann Serafino in 1995 in Hubbard near Youngstown.
www.herald-dispatch.com/opinions/x2101064554/Ohio-death-row-inmate-appeals-to-US-Supreme-Court

(No comment section with this article)

[guest]

Cordray Eagerly Jumps Into Death Penalty Debate

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat whose conservative position on the death penalty I previously have noted, appears to have played a significant role in Governor Ted Strickland’s rejection of the Parole Board’s 5-2 vote for clemency for Jason Getsy.

Per the Tribune Chronicle’s Chris Bobby (and via Doug Berman), this is only the third time the Parole Board has recommended clemency since the re-imposition of the death penalty. It is the first time the governor has rejected that recommendation.

To read more, also links within article;
lawdork.net/2009/08/17/cordray-eagerly-jumps-into-death-penalty-debate/

[guest]

Survivor of '95 Ohio attack will witness execution

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man who was shot seven times during a 1995 murder-for-hire attack that killed his mother plans to watch the triggerman's execution Tuesday.

Charles Serafino was the intended target of the shooting that killed his 66-year-old mother, Ann Serafino. Serafino plans to witness the execution of Jason Getsy in the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. Serafino, 53, will be joined by his sister, Nancy Serafino, and one of Ann Serafino's nieces.

Only one other time since Ohio resumed executions in 1999 have attack survivors witnessed an execution.

Getsy, 33, arrived in Lucasville on Monday morning after guards drove him from death row in Youngstown. He slept part of the way, asked for paper to write a letter when he arrived and began sorting through his goods.

After getting settled in his cell 17 steps from the death chamber, Getsy wrote letters, read the Bible and placed a phone call to friends. In the afternoon he showered and shaved and ate his special meal, which included medium rare rib-eye steak. He was upbeat and in good spirits, said prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn.

He planned to spend Monday afternoon and evening visiting with friends and family, including an aunt and uncle and his grandmother.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Getsy's final appeal late Monday. His lawyers had said they wanted challenge Ohio's lethal injection system as unconstitutionally cruel. Lower courts rejected the request, saying it was filed too late.

On Friday, Gov. Ted Strickland overruled the Ohio Parole Board and turned down Getsy's appeal for mercy.

The board had recommended Getsy be spared because other defendants in the slaying, including John Santine, the architect of the crime, appeared just as guilty but didn't receive a death sentence.

Strickland said the difference in sentences did not by itself justify granting Getsy clemency.

For Getsy's special meal, he ordered a rib-eye steak medium rare with A-1 sauce, barbecued buffalo wings, onion rings with ketchup, fried mushrooms with marinara sauce, a chef's salad with ranch dressing, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream and Dr. Pepper or root beer.

Ohio has executed 31 men since it began putting people to death again in 1999. The state has one execution scheduled each month through February.

In 2002, survivors of separate crimes of serial killer Alton Coleman watched his execution for the 1984 slaying of a woman in Norwood in suburban Cincinnati. They included Harry Walters, who was severely beaten in the attack that killed his wife, Marlene.

Any closure Charles Serafino achieves by witnessing Getsy's execution will depend on his attitude, said Michael Mantell, a psychologist who has treated victims of violent crime and other trauma.

"The mere act of watching the execution of the man who murdered his mother is not going to be healing, or destructive for that matter," said Mantell, based in San Diego. "A lot will depend on the perspective he brings to it."

___
www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/survivor-of-95-ohio-attack-will-witness-execution-252384.html

[guest]

Sotomayor on losing end in Ohio man's death appeal

WASHINGTON -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor is getting into the swing of being a member of the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor made what appears to be her first public decision as a justice on Monday, voting unsuccessfully to delay the execution of an Ohio death row inmate.

She voted along with the court's liberal bloc - Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer - to stop the execution of Jason Getsy, whose execution is Tuesday.

Getsy had asked the nation's high court Monday to allow him to challenge Ohio's lethal injection system as cruel and unusual punishment. The court's other five justices voted to deny the stay.

Getsy, 33, was sentenced to die for shooting 66-year-old Ann Serafino in 1995 in Hubbard, Ohio, near Youngstown.

The Supreme Court said Sotomayor did not participate in the court's other death penalty decision of the day: to order an evidentiary hearing for death row inmate Troy Davis, whose lawyers say they have evidence that he did not kill the off-duty police office for which he was condemned.

Sotomayor, 55, became the first Hispanic and third female justice in the court's 220-year history after taking an oath of office earlier this month from Chief Justice John Roberts.

She will sit in on her first Supreme Court hearing on a key campaign-finance case on Sept. 9. The new term doesn't formally kick off until Oct. 5.
www.seattlepi.com/national/1154ap_us_sotomayor_death_appeal.html

[guest]

Hit man prepares for his execution

www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/ohio-news/hit-man-prepares-for-his-execution-252915.html?more_comments=true&showComments=true&page=2

This article reflects what some of the other ones are printing - but there is a considerable number of comments.

[guest]

LUCASVILLE - The past 14 years have been tumultuous, said Nancy Serafino, daughter of the woman Jason Getsy pistol whipped and then shot to death in 1995 inside their Hubbard home.

For years, the condemned killer was housed at the state prison in Mansfield, just miles from the home where Nancy Serafino now lives.

Then, he was moved back to the Ohio Penitentiary in Youngstown, just miles from where the murder occurred.

''You see everyone else going about their lives, and here we are, living in our own private, silent hell,'' she said Monday evening over dinner in Lucasville, a short distance from the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility where Getsy was brought earlier in the day. Here, she and her brother, Charles, will witness Getsy's scheduled execution at 10 a.m. today.

"You feel like no one understands you, like no one cares about your family,'' she said.

Getsy, 33, was 19 when he agreed to kill Charles Serafino and any witnesses in a murder-for-hire scheme over a Hubbard landscaping business. Charles, who Getsy sprayed with bullets, was hit seven times, including once in the face; however, he survived the attack.

Charles arrived at a Lucasville hotel very late Monday evening, with a cigar in hand.

He said he planned to treat today just like any other.

''For me it's not going be to any sort of special day. He (Getsy) ruined my life, but I have gotten my life back together now,'' Charles Serafino said. ''Now he must pay the price.''

While Nancy Serafino dined out Monday evening with Trumbull County Prosecutor's office victim witness court advocate Miriam Fife in Lucasville, Getsy already had his final meal Monday afternoon.

At his request, Getsy was served a ribeye steak, cooked medium rare, with A1 sauce; hot barbecue buffalo wings; onion rings and ketchup; fried mushrooms with marinara sauce; chef salad and ranch dressing; pecan pie, ice cream and Dr Pepper soda and root beer.

One of his expected eight visitors, Twila Whitkanak, arrived at 4:30 p.m. to visit with him at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, said Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

"He has been writing, reading his Bible, and he spoke to friends on the phone," said Walburn.

Getsy had submitted a list of 31 people he wanted to visit with before the execution, scheduled for 10 a.m. today. However, only eight people confirmed they would meet with him in his final hours, Walburn said.

In his cell, Getsy was permitted to keep his address book and calendar, a notepad and notebook, a dictionary, his Bible and a photo album. He brought two pairs of underwear, a T-shirt, a pair of shorts and one pair of socks. He was permitted to keep toiletries in his cell, and showered and shaved after the four-hour trip from death row in Youngstown to the Lucasville facility.

Walburn said Getsy would be speaking with his family to determine arrangements for his remains. The family may decide to claim his body from the Scioto County Coroner's Office, or the state will take care of the disposition.

Last week, while the governor deliberated on clemency, Nancy Serafino said she had spent the week waiting. Her family had collected signatures on petitions and wrote letters asking the governor to set aside the clemency recommendation.

''I am so relieved,'' said Nancy Serafino of Mansfield. ''I was in hell after the parole board decision.''

She was referring to a 5-2 recommendation by the Parole Board that Getsy be given clemency, largely because his three co-defendants received lesser sentences.

The news that clemency had been recommended was like a punch to the gut, she said. "I felt it here, in my stomach, like a pain," she said. "This has made my entire family relive the murder all over again.''

Then, Friday, Fife had called her with news of the governor's decision to deny clemency.

"I felt the pain, here, in my stomach again," she said. "I was doubled over, trying to breathe."

She thanked Trumbull County prosecutor Dennis Watkins for his work on the case.

"I know that he was doing this for justice, for his office," she said. "But I feel he was also doing this for our family."

Four people were selected by Getsy to witness his death: his aunt and uncle, Angela and Ron Manes, his friend Saundra Cardillo and his spiritual adviser pastor Henry Cardillo.

Also witnessing will be Charles and Nancy Serafino, and victim Ann Serafino's niece, Sue Cargangia.

Media witnesses are Andrew Welsh Huggins, The Associated Press; Amanda Smith-Teutsch, Tribune Chronicle; Mark Kovac, The Vindicator; Tom Beyerlein, Dayton Daily News; Amanda Hackman, WKBN TV 27; and Jennifer Jefcoat, WYTV Channel 33.

[e-mail]

www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/526163.html?nav=5021

[guest]

Jason Getsy to face death by lethal injection at 10 a.m. today

LUCASVILLE — Jason Getsy was in good spirits Monday, visiting friends and family and eating a final special meal before his scheduled execution.

The 33-year-old man, convicted in the murder of a Hubbard woman in 1995, will face death by lethal injection about 10 a.m. today at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near here.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Getsy’s final appeal late Monday. His lawyers had said they wanted to challenge Ohio’s lethal-injection system as unconstitutionally cruel. Lower courts rejected the request, saying it was filed too late.

Getsy was convicted in the aggravated murder of Ann R. Serafino and the attempted murder of her son, Charles Serafino. Getsy and two other men were hired to kill Charles Serafino by another individual over a business disagreement. Serafino, though shot in the face at point-blank range, survived.

The state parole board recommended clemency in the case, because Getsy was the only one of four co-defendants, including ringleader John Santine, to get the death penalty. But Gov. Ted Strickland rejected a sentence commutation late last week.

Getsy arrived at the prison death house late Monday morning and was examined by medical and mental-health staff. Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said he was in good humor and respectful to prison personnel during the process.

“He has been writing, reading the Bible, speaking on the phone to one set of friends,” Walburn said during an afternoon press briefing at the prison.

Getsy was allowed to take a number of personal items into his cell with him, including a Bible, address book, dictionary, a photo album, a blanket, various toiletries and one package of Rolaids, Walburn said.

He was allowed a special meal Monday afternoon that included a ribeye steak, cooked medium rare with A-1 sauce on the side, hot barbecued chicken wings and onion rings with ketchup. The meal included fried mushrooms with marinara sauce, a chef salad with ranch dressing, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream and two types of soda pop.

For several hours Monday evening, Getsy was allowed contact meetings with friends and family. He has provided a list of 31 potential visitors to staff, and eight had given verbal confirmations as of late afternoon that they planned to visit.

This morning, he will be served the standard prison-issue breakfast of the day and can meet with friends and family, a minister and legal counsel in cell-front visits.

An uncle and an aunt, Ron Manes and Angela Manes, and friends Saundra and Henry Cardillo will serve as witnesses on Getsy’s behalf. Henry Cardillo is Getsy’s spiritual adviser, Walburn said.

Chuck Serafino, his sister, Nancy, and a niece of the murder victim, Sue Cargangaia, will witness on behalf of the victims.

www.vindy.com/news/2009/aug/18/jason-getsy-to-face-death-by-lethal-injection-at/

[guest]

Tribune Chronicle

LUCASVILLE Jason Getsy met with his friends and family this morning. He underwent three health assessments including a vein check and mental health check. Officials said that everything is satisfactory and that they do not anticipate problems with his 10 a.m. scheduled execution.

The triggerman in a Hubbard murder-for-hire scheme that killed 66-year-old Ann Serafino and critically wounded her son Charles is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.
www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/526171.html?nav=5021

[guest]

State executes hit man

UPDATE from the Associated Press: Ohio on Tuesday executed the triggerman in a 1995 murder-for-hire scheme that killed a 66-year-old woman andseverely injured her son.

Jason Getsy, 33, was pronounced dead at 10:29 a.m. in the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.

---

LUCASVILLE — There was laughter and tears this morning as Trumball County hit man Jason Getsy said his final goodbyes to friends and family as he prepared to become the 32nd Ohio inmate to be executed since 1999.

Getsy, 33, of Hubbard is to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. today, Aug. 18, at the Southern Ohio Correctional facility here for the 1995 aggravated murder of 66-year-old Ann R. Serafino.

He visited with four relatives, including his grandmother, two friends, his two attorneys and a spiritual adviser both Monday evening and this morning, said Julie Walburn of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

He made phone calls, wrote letters and read the Bible, she said.

"He has been upbeat," Walburn said. "He has remained positive, very respectful to staff."

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote declined Monday to hear Getsy's case.

The case has been controversial because the man who ordered the hit did not get the death penalty. Getsy's jury found he was hired by John Santine to kill business rival Charles Serafino and any witnesses.

Santine's jury convicted him of aggravated murder but not of the murder for hire specification that would have allowed the death penalty.

Getsy wounded Charles Serafino, who survived and is to witness Getsy's execution, and killed Serafino's mother.

Partly because of the sentencing disparity, the Ohio Parole Board recommended clemency but Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday declined to spare Getsy's life.

Prison officials served Getsy a "special meal" of ribeye steak, Buffalo wings, onion rings, fried mushrooms, a chef salad, soda and pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. Walburn said he ate everything but the dessert.

Getsy's execution will be the second in Ohio in less than a month. On July 21, Dayton "Christmas killer" Marvallous Keene was put to death. The state has scheduled one execution per month through February.

Getsy, 33, was convicted of murder for hire, a death penalty offense, in the July 7, 1995, killing of Serafino of Hubbard in Trumbull County. The jury at Getsy’s trial found that Getsy was paid by John Santine to kill his business rival, Charles Serafino, and any witnesses. Getsy wounded Charles Serafino, who survived, but killed his mother in the home the Serafinos shared.

At his trial, which came after Getsy’s, Santine was convicted of aggravated murder, but not the murder-for-hire specification that would have allowed the death penalty. Two accomplices also avoided capital punishment.

Getsy admitted he shot the Serafinos, but said he was motivated not by money but by fear of Santine, who reputedly had mob connections.

The Ohio Parole Board recommended that Gov. Ted Strickland grant clemency to Getsy, in part because Santine did not get the death penalty, but Strickland on Friday announced he would not spare Getsy’s life. “Mr. Getsy and Mr. Santine had different roles in the murder,” Strickland said in a statement. “The fact that Mr. Santine was not sentenced to death is not, by itself, justification to commute Mr. Getsy’s sentence.”

www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/ohio-news/state-executes-hit-man-252915.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio executes triggerman
in 1995 scheme

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) - Ohio on Tuesday executed a murder-for-hire triggerman for killing the mother of his intended target, who lay severely wounded nearby as his mother died.

Jason Getsy, 33, was pronounced dead at 10:29 a.m. in the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.

Getsy was sentenced to die for fatally shooting Ann Serafino in a crime that targeted her son, Charles Serafino, in a dispute over a lawn care business.

Charles Serafino was shot seven times but survived and witnessed Getsy's execution Tuesday.

Getsy briefly addressed Charles Serafino and his sister, Nancy, who also witnessed, telling them it was his earnest prayer that God would grant them peace.

"I am sorry," he said. "It's a little word, I know, but it is true."

Getsy also said that, even lying where he was, that he was blessed because of God's love.

Nancy and Charles Serafino and a niece of Ann Serafino, Sue Carfangia, sat quietly and watched without speaking.

Afterwards, Nancy Serafino said she believed Getsy's apology was genuine. Her brother had a harsher assessment.

"It's too little, too late," Charles Serafino said. "He's never taken responsibility for what he did."

Getsy tilted his head to the left and appeared to smile at his aunt and uncle and spiritual adviser before his eyes closed at about 10:19 a.m. His chest rose and fell three times and then he was still.

"Sleep my friend, sleep," said Saundra Cardillo, the wife of Getsy's spiritual adviser.

Warden Phillip Kerns shook Getsy and called his name to see if he was unconscious, as part of prison policy when putting inmates to death. A member of the execution team re-entered the death chamber and checked the shunts on both arms after the administration of the first drug, which puts inmates to sleep, also part of prison policy.

Getsy fatally shot Ann Serafino in her home in Hubbard, near Youngstown, on July 7, 1995. Charles Serafino was the intended victim.

John Santine, who orchestrated the crime, was in a dispute over ownership of a landscaping business with Charles Serafino and offered Getsy $5,000 to kill him and any witnesses to the crime. Santine was convicted of aggravated murder.

Prosecutors said Charles Serafino was lying wounded on the floor when Getsy struck his mother in the head with a revolver, opening a 4-inch gash, and then shot her twice.

Getsy spent Monday night writing letters — he asked for 15 stamped envelopes — making phone calls and reading the Bible. He ate part of his last meal, including rib-eye steak, barbecued buffalo wings and onion rings.

He saw visitors on Tuesday morning, including his grandmother and an aunt and uncle, and seemed upbeat and positive, said prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn.

Getsy, who dropped out of school in the 12th grade, never met his father and was raised by his mother and stepfather. In 1992, he was convicted of negligent homicide in the death of a 14-year-old companion who died playing Russian roulette.

The Ohio Parole Board by a 5-2 vote last month recommended clemency for Getsy because other defendants in the slaying, including Santine, appeared just as guilty but weren't sentenced to die. Gov. Ted Strickland overruled the board last week, saying the sentencing disparity did not by itself justify granting clemency.

Appeals courts previously have questioned Getsy's sentence. A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his sentence in 2006, saying it was arbitrary. The full 6th Circuit reinstated it in 2007 in an 8-6 ruling.

The Ohio Supreme Court also noted the sentencing differences in a 1998 ruling but said that was not enough to spare Getsy.

The U.S. Supreme Court late Monday denied Getsy's request for a stay of execution. His lawyers had said they wanted to challenge Ohio's lethal injection system as unconstitutionally cruel.
www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/national/midwest/nat_ap_ohio_executes_triggerman_in_murder_for_hire_scheme_200908181047_2777447

[guest]

WARREN - Still unsure whether Jason Getsy had taken his last breath Tuesday morning, Tracy Spirko recalled the phone conversation she had Sunday night with the 33-year-old death row inmate awaiting execution.

''He's just a kid,'' said Spirko, of Brookfield, who is married to 63-year-old John Spirko, a former death row inmate who had seven different execution dates before finally getting his death sentence commuted to life behind bars Jan. 9, 2008.

''John is on the phone now, crying his eyes out,'' Spirko said, holding up her cell phone to a half dozen others assembled at Courthouse Square for a vigil for Getsy and a protest over executions in general.

The Brookfield woman said that when she spoke with Getsy on Sunday, he also cried.

''Jason told me that he was truly blessed. He planned to make a statement before he died. He also said he thought (Gov. Ted) Strickland buckled under the pressure,'' she said.

''He invited me to his funeral and he told me, 'I didn't want to kill anybody, but they (state of Ohio) do,''' she said.

Spirko said she was considering getting another tattoo in Getsy's behalf. ''I asked him what color he liked. We just started talking about how much he liked the woods. I don't know why.''

Spirko said she met her husband as a pen pal in 2003 when he was on death row, and they married a couple of years later through a proxy arrangement.

''When I first started writing John, the first thing I told him is if he was looking for money from me, forget it,'' said Spirko, who worked at General Motors before retiring in 2003 after a car crash with a semi truck.

She was accustomed to writing to prisoners, having friends that served time and relatives and friends who were murdered while she lived in Arizona. She has adjusted to the fact that she sees her husband at Trumbull Correctional Institution four times a month with no conjugal visits allowed.

Spirko got to know Getsy when he was in the booth next to her husband.

''But John got to know Jason in Mansfield when death row was still there. They're like father and son, playing basketball, even fighting with each other. Most people don't realize how close those guys are,'' she said, recalling how her husband and Getsy were eventually moved to Ohio State Penitentiary.

Her husband was released into general population after Strickland granted a rare clemency, citing a lack of physical evidence in the 1982 murder of Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger in Van Wert County.

Spirko, 45, is the focal point of a soon-to-be-released documentary entitled ''Till Death Do Us Part,'' produced by a former PBS reporter out of Boston.

The Brookfield woman was among seven or eight people gathered downtown who held up signs condemning Ohio's execution policy. The group also took part in a vigil led by Pat Rogan and the Rev. Bernard Schmalzried of St. Mary's Catholic Church who arrived with Sister Adele Vecchione.

Schmalzried has been tolling the church bells in observance of each execution since the state resumed the practice in 1999.

''The bells toll for an hour, not really for the people who die, but rather for us. We have to change minds and hearts of people to change the law,'' said Schmalzried, a former teacher at Cardinal Mooney, where he came to know Stephen Vrabel, another death row inmate who volunteered to be executed in July 14, 2004, for the murders of Susan and Lisa Clemente in Mahoning County.

''Sometimes there seems too many contradictions with these executions. In Getsy's case, he wasn't old enough to buy a beer when the crime was committed," the pastor said.

''Executions are rooted in hatred and revenge. Justice is meant to restore. In these cases, the loss can't be restored,'' he said.
www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/526218.html?nav=5021

[guest]

Getsy stared at his friends and uncle and aunt, then appeared to fall asleep after about a minute.

LUCASVILLE — Jason Getsy faced the children of the Hubbard woman he killed 14 years ago and apologized before being executed for the crime.

“To Chuck and Nancy Serafino and your loved ones, for all the pain that I have caused you, it is my earnest prayer that God grant you peace,” Getsy said before the lethal injection that ended his life Tuesday morning. “I’m sorry. It is a little word, I know, but it’s true.”

Getsy, 33, was pronounced dead at 10:29 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution near Lucasville. Brother and sister Chuck and Nancy Serafino witnessed the execution, along with a niece of the murder victim.

“It’s too little, too late,” Chuck Serafino told reporters afterward. “He’s been asked a number of times to tell the truth, and he has not. ... I wrote to him, asked for the truth. He lied then, he lied to the parole board. To this day, he has never taken responsibility for what he did.”

He added, “I’m pretty forgiving. I’m going on with my day. This day, this is nothing for me. ... All I know is my mother’s still in the grave, and that’s the bottom line.”

Getsy, also of Hubbard, was convicted in the 1995 murder of Ann Serafino and the attempted murder of her son, Chuck.

Getsy and two other men were hired to kill Serafino by another individual over a business disagreement; though shot in the face at point-blank range, Chuck Serafino survived.

The state parole board recommended clemency in the case, because Getsy was the only one of four co-defendants, including ring leader John Santine, to get the death penalty.

But Gov. Ted Strickland rejected a sentence commutation late last week. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute attempt to delay the execution.

The death chamber

Witnesses to the execution arrived in the observation room in the death house just after 10 a.m. Tuesday.

In addition to the Serafino family, witnesses were Getsy’s uncle and aunt, Ron and Angela Manes, and friends Saundra and Henry Cardillo. The latter, a minister, also served as Getsy’s spiritual adviser.

Shortly afterward, television monitors were turned on, showing Getsy lying on a table in the holding cell, wearing a white shirt, blue pants with red stripes down the legs and black shoes.

He remained calm as staff inserted shunts into his arms, a process that took about 10 minutes.

He was then helped from the table and walked to the death chamber — about 17 steps away — where he was strapped to another table, and intravenous tubes were connected to the shunts.

Getsy looked up at his witnesses, who held hands and sobbed throughout the process.

He also looked at the Serafinos and offered his apology.

“For everyone else, God is so great that he gave his only son that I may be forgiven for all my sins,” Getsy said after apologizing to the victim’s family. “Even today, lying here, I can say how blessed I am.”

After his final statement, the lethal injection was started, with three separate drugs involved: one that rendered Getsy unconscious, then a muscle relaxer and a final solution that stopped his heart.

Getsy stared at his friends and uncle and aunt, then appeared to fall asleep after about a minute.

Prison personnel shook his arm and shoulder and called his name after the first drug was administered, and the shunts were checked.

The final two drugs took about five minutes to inject. Getsy heaved a few final breaths.

And at 10:29, he was pronounced dead.

Family reacts

Chuck Serafino said justice was a long time coming — the sentence should have been carried out years ago.

“He had to pay for what he did,” he said. “We all have to pay for what we do in life.”

Nancy Serafino thanked the state attorney general’s office, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and others involved in the case, particularly during the past few weeks after the parole board recommended clemency.

It was “the worst four weeks of my life,” Nancy Serafino said. “I would have felt like he won again if the sentence was not carried out. He sentenced us to life without my mother for 14 years and the rest of my life, and it’s time that his sentence [was carried out].”

She added later of the execution process, “That was a lot more humane than what he did to my mother 14 years ago, because he basically just went to sleep.”

Nancy Serafino added that she believed Getsy’s apology was genuine.

Getsy’s family and friends, who witnessed the execution, did not speak to reporters afterward.

Last hours

Getsy spent Monday evening eating a special meal and visiting for several hours with friends and family. Visitors included his aunt and uncle and his grandmother.

He also spent about 20 minutes with his two attorneys, said Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

After the visits, Getsy requested 15 stamped envelopes from his personal belongings, wrote more letters and made several phone calls. He also finished the remainder of his special meal, which included steak, chicken wings and onion rings; he did not eat the slice of pecan pie and vanilla ice cream that were provided.

“Throughout the evening, the execution team has indicated he has been upbeat,” Walburn said during a press briefing at the prison before the execution. “He’s remained positive, very respectful with staff. That’s consistently what they have indicated to us.”

Getsy completed routine mental health and vein checks throughout the night, Walburn said.

He slept from 2:22 a.m. until 5:32 a.m., then showered. He declined the prison-issue breakfast and resumed visits with the same visitors from the prior evening, Walburn said. He and visitors were increasingly emotional and visibly upset as the meetings came to an end.

Getsy’s body will be cremated, with the remains turned over to his family. His uncle will receive his belongings, Walburn said.

Getsy is the 32nd inmate to be executed since Ohio reinstated the death penalty in the late 1990s and the fourth this year. Executions are scheduled, one per month, through February.

There are 168 inmates — 167 men and one woman — on death row.

www.vindy.com/news/2009/aug/19/for-victim8217s-son-getsy8217s-apology/

[thinkinkmesa]

Naturally most news articles and videos speak about the victims families and their suffering, but these two seem to be the only ones that even mention the suffering of Jason's family or the cycle of perpetuated violence.

Words from court reporters and victim witnesses Charles and Nancy Serafino regarding the execution.
www.vindy.com/videos/2009/aug/18/931/


Click on the one that says "Why Do We Kill?"
www.wytv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=11657

[guest]

The Machinery of Death

briefcase8.com/2009/08/20/friday-roundup-34/