William Garner

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Death sentence upheld in 5 deaths

By Dan Horn • dhorn@enquirer. com • March 3, 2009

A federal appeals court upheld a death sentence Tuesday for William
Garner, a Cincinnati man who set a fire that killed five children as
they slept in their English Woods home.

A divided U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Garner’s low
intelligence did not prevent him from understanding his
constitutional rights when police questioned him about the fire in
January 1992.

“Garner’s conduct before and during the interrogation demonstrates
that he understood his … rights and the consequences of waiving those
rights,” wrote Judge John Rogers, who was among 10 judges who voted
to uphold Garner’s conviction and sentence. “It is undisputed that
the police officers took care to ensure that Garner understood the
warnings.”

The three dissenting judges – Karen Nelson Moore, Boyce Martin and
Eric Clay – said the key question was not whether police acted
appropriately, but whether Garner was capable of understanding their
instructions and his rights.

Garner’s IQ is estimated at 76 and his attorneys have argued he is
mentally retarded and received an inadequate education. The
dissenting judges said Garner’s low intelligence made it impossible
for him to comprehend his Miranda rights, which include warnings
about the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer.

“The preponderance of the evidence shows that Garner did not
knowingly and intelligently waive his Miranda rights,” Moore wrote in
her dissent.

Garner was arrested in Jan. 26, 1992, when he was 19 years old, after
a fire killed the children in an apartment Garner had just burglarized.

The blaze killed three sisters, Denitra Satterwhite, 12, Deondra
Freeman, 10, and Myka Mack, 8; the girls’ cousin, Markeca Mason, 11;
and a neighbor, Richard Gaines, 11. The only survivor was 14-year-old
Rodriquez Mack, who escaped through a second-floor window.

Police say Garner stole a purse belonging to Addie Mack while she was
seeking treatment at a hospital emergency room. They say he then took
a cab to the address on Mack’s driver’s license and used her keys to
enter the apartment.
He carried a television, a VCR, a portable telephone and a radio out
of the house and into the cab, telling the driver he was reclaiming
his belongings from a girlfriend.

While committing the crime, police said, one of the children woke up
and asked Garner for a glass of water. He gave her the water and,
after she returned to bed, set three fires in the house.

Garner told police in a taped statement that he set the fires to
remove his fingerprints, and that he thought the children would smell
smoke and leave the apartment on their own.

news.cincinnati.com/article/20090303/NEWS0107/303030033/1056/COL02

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No clemency for Ohio man who killed kids in fire

The Ohio Parole Board has turned down a request for mercy from a death row inmate who set fires in Cincinnati that killed five children in 1992.

The panel ruled unanimously Tuesday against clemency for convicted murderer William Garner, whose execution is scheduled for next month.

The parole board said it's clear that the 37-year-old Garner was raised in an ''exceptionally and horribly'' abusive home and suffered developmentally. But it said those factors did not outweigh the deaths of the children, which the board called ''an offense of unusual magnitude.''

Garner told police he set fire to an apartment to destroy evidence of a burglary and said he thought the children who were inside would escape.

Victims' relatives had urged that clemency be denied.
More;
www.ohio.com/news/ohiocentric/96899399.html

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No clemency for child killer

A unanimous Ohio Parole Board recommended against clemency today for William L. Garner, convicted in 1992 of murdering five children by setting fire to a Cincinnati apartment after a burglary.

Garner, 37, is to be put to death by lethal injection July 13, the sixth execution this year.

In its 7-0 recommendation to Gov. Ted Strickland, the state Parole Board wrote, "Although claiming his intent was not to harm or kill the children, his behavior in committing the offense reflects considerable calculation and purposeful conduct. . ."

Prosecutors said that after burglarizing the Knob Court apartment of Addie F. Mack on Jan. 26, 1992, Garner set three fires.

Mack was being treated at a local hospital emergency room.

Garner, 19 at the time, told police he found Mack's keys and address in a purse left near a hospital pay phone.

Five of the six children in Mack's apartment died from smoke inhalation: Denitra Satterwhite, 12; Richard Gaines, 11; Markeca Mason, 11; Deondra Freeman,10; and Mykkila Mason, 8.

Garner told the state Parole Board that he was careless but assumed the children would escape the apartment because the couch where he set a fire was near a smoke detector. It was later learned the detector did not have a battery in it. Garner denied setting a separate fire upstairs.

Garner said he had a difficult childhood, explaining he also set the fire to draw attention to the squalid conditions in which the Knob Court children were living.

Others testified at Garner's June 14 parole hearing that he was developmental disabled, suffered from lead poisoning and was beaten and sexually abused as a child. Dating back to the age of 11, Garner was arrested at least 15 times for theft, burglary, drugs and assault.

The Parole Board wrote that Garner's "misbehavior continues while imprisoned.'' His prison record contains many rule violations including setting fires, threats and disobedience.

news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20100622/NEWS010702/6230321/

[thinkinkmesa]

A state court in Cincinnati has turned down an appeal by a 37-year-old man scheduled to die next Tuesday for setting a fire that killed five children.

Three 1st District Court of Appeals judges on Friday unanimously rejected contentions by William Garner that his five death sentences should be thrown out for various reasons, including his claim that he had a mental age below 18 at the time of the 1992 murders.

More;
ww.examiner.com/a-2719225~Ohio_court_rejects_death_row_inmate_s_appeal.html

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'Borderline retarded' man to be executed

The Ohio Supreme Court declined to intercede Monday in the impending execution of a "borderline retarded" man.

William Garner is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

The state's highest court said in a ruling posted on its Web site it had declined to accept Garner's discretionary appeal and denied as moot his motion for stay of execution.

Garner, 37, would become the sixth person to be executed in Ohio this year, putting the state on pace to break its record of seven in on year and second only to Texas, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday.

Two months after his 20th birthday, the Avondale man whom attorneys allege is "borderline retarded" based on IQ numbers, was sentenced to die for the confessed killings of five children on Jan. 26, 1992.

Garner stole a woman's purse at a hospital, hailed a cab to her home where her four children and one of their friends were asleep upstairs. He stole a boom box, a VCR and a television set from one of her children's bedrooms, the newspaper said.

Garner then set three fires to cover up the crime and left in a cab, paying for the fare with the stolen television.

The three girl children huddled together unable to escape. The only survivor, a boy, jumped out a second-story window urging his friend, who was sleeping over, to do the same, the Enquirer said.

The friend did not and died in the fire.

"It's sad. It's awful -- all for a stupid TV," veteran Cincinnati police homicide Detective David Feldhouse said.

www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/07/12/Borderline-retarded-man-to-be-executed/UPI-74441278975050/

[thinkinkmesa]

Another Ohio execution likely

It's looking more and more like a death row inmate convicted of setting a fire that killed five children will be executed Tuesday. Governor Ted Strickland has rejected a plea for clemency. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles has more.

audio/ www.wksu.org/news/story/25836

[thinkinkmesa]

William Garner Faces Execution Tuesday

Monday night, in what is likley his last chance to avoid a lethal injection, the Federal Sixth Circuit Court refused to hear further appeals from condemned child killer William Garner.

Earlier The Ohio Supreme Court has refused to hear his appeals. Garner is facing execution for killing five children in a 1992 English Woods apartment fire he set to destroy evidence of a burglary.

The court Monday denied William Garner's request to a postpone his execution. He's scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection.

The 37-year-old Garner had argued that his five death sentences should be thrown out for reasons including his claim that he had the mental age of a child when he set the fire.

A message seeking comment left with his attorney at the Ohio public defender's office.

Garner has said he threw a lighted match on a couch after burglarizing the Cincinnati apartment and that he thought the children would escape.

Governor Ted Strickland today issued the following statement on the Ohio Parole Board's recommendation against executive clemency for Garner:

"As a result of his conviction for aggravated murder, Mr. William Garner is scheduled to be executed on July 13, 2010 at 10 a.m. I have completed a review of the circumstances surrounding his case to determine if executive clemency is warranted."

"In conducting this evaluation, my staff and I reviewed the record of proceedings and the evidence presented in Mr. Garner's case, the judicial decisions regarding Mr. Garner's conviction, and arguments presented for and against clemency at the Parole Board hearing regarding his application for executive clemency. We have also reviewed institutional records, letters, the exhibits presented at the Parole Board hearing and the unanimous recommendation against clemency forwarded to me by the Ohio Parole Board on June 22, 2010."

"Based on this review, I concur with the Parole Board recommendation on this matter."
www.local12.com/content/breaking_news/story/William-Garner-Faces-Execution-Tuesday/ro7fF2Ezq06xluH03iLwZQ.cspx

[thinkinkmesa]

Child-killer's execution set for 10 a.m.
Man who set fire in 1992 runs out of legal appeals
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 02:50 AM
Updated: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 09:16 AM

Rod Mack was 13 years old when he escaped a Cincinnati apartment fire amid the screams of his sisters and the sound of his best friend collapsing to the floor.

He alone survived the fire, which killed five other children. It was started by a man to cover up the theft of a television, a VCR, a telephone and a radio. More than 18 years later, Mack planned to watch the arsonist's execution by lethal injection this morning.

William Garner, 37, was to be executed at the southern Ohio prison that houses the state's death chamber.

So many people wanted to witness the execution on behalf of the young victim that prison officials planned to open a second viewing room, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said today. Six people could be accommodated in the witness room facing the execution chamber, and another three would have to watch on closed circuit TV in the spillover room, she said.

Yesterday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati denied Garner's request for postponement to allow him a chance to argue that his death sentences should be thrown out because he had the mental age of a child when he set the fire.

Earlier yesterday, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear a similar mental-age argument, and Gov. Ted Strickland denied clemency.

Garner's attorney, Kelly Schneider, said no additional appeals would be filed. She had argued in a court motion that Garner's "developmental disabilities, limited IQ, and the horrors of his life" caused him to function on the level of a 14-year-old.

It wasn't long after his 19th birthday when Garner, in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 26, 1992, gained access to Addie Mack's apartment by stealing keys from her purse while she received care in the emergency room of a nearby hospital. Her son Rod Mack was the oldest of the six children who were home alone at the time, including his sisters, his friend and a cousin. The youngest was 8.

Garner told police that he had noticed the bedroom "full of girls" and that one of them had asked him for water, which he provided, according to a report by the Ohio Parole Board. He also said he had been in another bedroom where the two boys slept.

Garner admitted throwing a lighted match on a couch in an attempt to destroy evidence of the burglary and said he thought the children would escape.

Only Rod Mack made it out alive. He climbed out a window, barefoot and crying in the bitter cold.

Besides Rod Mack, his mother and seven other relatives of the children planned to witness Garner's death.

Garner was moved yesterday morning from death row at a central Ohio prison to the prison where the execution chamber is. He was to receive a special meal to include a porterhouse steak, onion rings, fried shrimp, barbecue ribs and wings, potato wedges, sweet potato pie, chocolate ice cream and red Hawaiian Punch.

He spent the day watching television and talking on the telephone and visited with relatives and his legal team. His niece and lawyer and an investigator planned to watch the execution on his behalf.

Garner has said a secondary motivation for setting the fire was to draw attention to the children's squalid living conditions. His attorneys also have argued he should be spared the death penalty because he has a brain impairment from lead poisoning and was a victim of violence and sexual assault as a child.

Garner would be the sixth person executed in Ohio this year and the 39th put to death by the state since it resumed the practice in 1999.

More;
www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/07/13/child-killers-execution-looks-certain.html?sid=101&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+StatelineorgRss-Ohio+%28Stateline.org+RSS+-+Ohio%29

[thinkinkmesa]

A man accused of setting a fire that killed five Cincinnati children has been put to the death by lethal injection this morning. 37 year old William Garner was executed for the murders in 1992.

Garner killed five children in a 1992 English Woods apartment fire he set to destroy evidence of a burglary. Garner has said he threw a lighted match on a couch after burglarizing the apartment where the children were sleeping-he told authorities he thought the children would escape. 11 year old Markeca Mason, 8 year old Mykkila Mason, 12 year old Denitra Satterwhite, 10 year old Deondra Freeman, and 11 year old Richard Gaines all died in the fire. One child did escape-Rodriczus Mack was 13 at the time and jumped from the window. He will witness Garner's execution.

On Monday, the Federal Sixth Circuit Court refused to hear further appeals. Earlier that day, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear his appeals. Garner had argued that his five death sentences should be thrown out for reasons including his claim that he had the mental age of a child when he set the fire.

Garner is the sixth person executed in Ohio this year and the 39th put to death by the state since it resumed the practice in 1999.

www.local12.com/news/local/story/William-Garner-Executed/ro7fF2Ezq06xluH03iLwZQ.cspx

[thinkinkmesa]

Ohio man executed for fire deaths of 5 children

An Ohio man said he was "heartily sorry" before he was executed Tuesday for the murders of five children in a 1992 Cincinnati apartment fire he set in an attempt to destroy evidence of a burglary.

William Garner, 37, died by lethal injection at 10:38 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

As he lay on the execution table, Garner held a dreadlock of hair from a female friend and read a lengthy final statement from notebook paper held by the execution team leader, thanking several people as well as the state of Ohio.

"God bless everyone who has been robbed in this procedure," he said. "I thought I'd never be free, but I'm free now."

In the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 26, 1992, Garner gained access to Addie Mack's apartment after stealing keys from her purse while she received care in a hospital emergency room. Six children, ages 8 to 13, were at the apartment alone, and Garner knew they were there when he threw a lit match onto a couch.

Garner has admitted setting the fire but said he thought the children would escape. Only one, 13-year-old Rod Mack, made it out alive. Mack watched the execution quietly with several others.

So many people wanted to witness the execution on behalf of the young victims that the prison opened a second viewing room, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said. Mack and five others were accommodated in the witness room facing the execution chamber, and another three watched on closed-circuit TV in the spillover room, she said.

Garner spent his final hours watching television and talking on the telephone with a friend and his twin brother. He visited with his mother and other relatives, as well as with spiritual advisers and his legal team, and took Holy Communion about an hour and a half before the start of his execution.

More;
www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=2001575

[thinkinkmesa]

Killer of 5 children is executed
Garner had set fire to cover up burglary in Cincinnati

William Garner may have been ready to go, but his body wasn't.

The Cincinnati man who killed five children by setting an apartment fire to cover up a burglary succumbed to a lethal dose of thiopental sodium at 10:38 a.m. today at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

But Garner, 37, wasn't pronounced dead until after an unusual 10-minute delay, during which a curtain shielded his body from the view of witnesses and the media in the prison Death House and an ancillary site.

Ernie L. Moore, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said later that when the curtain was pulled - usually signaling the end of an execution and the announcement of the time of death - the coroner said he heard "faint heart sounds" even though there were "no other life signs."

Garner was not dead, even though the fatal chemical had been flowing into his veins for nine minutes.

The unexpected development triggered a five-minute wait under prison protocol, Moore said. At that point, behind the curtain, Garner's body was re-checked for a heartbeat. This time there was none; the curtain was opened, and the execution was over.

Prison officials said they may re-examine the procedure for determining when the curtain is pulled and death is determined.

The unexpected development triggered a five-minute wait under prison protocol, Moore said. At that point, behind the curtain, Garner's body was re-checked for a heartbeat. This time there was none; the curtain was opened, and the execution was over.

Prison officials said they may re-examine the procedure for determining when the curtain is pulled and death is determined.

Rod Mack, the lone survivor of the fire on Jan. 26, 1992, watched Garner's execution, as did the parents of several of the dead children. So many family members wanted to see Garner die that prison officials set up a room where three witnesses watched the execution on closed-circuit television.

About 10:20 a.m., as the execution began, a storm that had been hanging over the southern Ohio hills was unleashed. There were several loud claps of thunder, and a heavy rain began pelting the prison roof.

Reading from a rambling hand-written statement, Garner said he was "heartily sorry ... my carelessness caused a great lost (sic) to many and if my flesh gives you all some kind of peace, I want that for you."

He thanked a long list of people, including the state of Ohio, then said, "I'm free, thank God almighty, I'm free now."

None of the victims' family members spoke to the media afterward, but Lisa Ross, Garner's sister, said her brother "was at peace. He was ready to go."

Ross said "accidents happen" and that she hopes people can forgive her brother.

Police and court records tell a very different story about a man who tried to set fires in three places and stole the telephone - all the while knowing there were six children in the apartment. Garner even got one girl a glass of water and watched TV with her for a while.

Five of the children died of smoke inhalation: Deondra Freeman, 10; Richard Gaines, 11; Markeca and Mykkila Mason, 11 and 8, respectively; and Denitra Satterwhite, 12.

Mack, who was 13 at the time, escaped by jumping out a window.

Records show Garner found a purse belonging to Addie F. Mack in the emergency room of a Cincinnati hospital. After locating her address, Garner took a cab to the apartment, stole her television, VCR, telephone and boom box, then tried to cover his tracks by setting fire to the couch and two other spots in the apartment.

Garner ate nearly all of his last meal, which included a porterhouse steak, fried shrimp, barbecued ribs, a large salad, potato wedges, onion rings, sweet potato pie, chocolate ice cream and Hawaiian Punch to drink.

He was the sixth Ohioan executed this year and the 39th since capital punishment resumed in 1999.

More;
www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/07/13/garner-executed.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Garner goes quietly for killing 5

William Garner glanced over at his niece, a soft smile breaking his face as the first of the five syringes of a lethal drug were pumped into his arm at 10:21 a.m. Tuesday in the Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

Garner, 37, who grew up with the name “Peewee,” was the 382nd person to be executed in Ohio since the state began executions in 1803.

The state has an execution scheduled each month through November.

Garner has spent nearly half his life on death row after killing five children in an English Woods townhouse on Jan. 26, 1992, when he set three fires to cover up a burglary.

Garner was not pronounced dead until 10:38 a.m., 10 minutes after the curtain closed - generally a sign that the inmate has died.

A coroner told the warden he detected what he thought was a faint heartbeat shortly after the curtain closed. The coroner then must wait five minutes and then check again for a heart beat.

None was detected the second time, said Ernie Moore, the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Moore, who just took over the post in February, seemed subdued throughout the day and spoke briefly that he was following the law in executing Garner.

Garner, however, appeared at peace with his condemnation.

If he was scared, he showed no sign. He turned his head to the left, staring into the eyes of his niece Martisha Ross for long periods.

While strapped to a wooden gurney, Garner held a dreadlock of hair from a friend in his left hand and read from a hand-written note held up by an official. He apologized to the six family members of victims who were there to witness the execution, separated from the killer by about four feet and a glass window.

“If this will give you closure, I hope it will,” he said.

Garner thanked the state of Ohio, his spiritual advisers and friend Stacy Evans who gave him a clipping of her dreadlock to hold as he died.

Garner’s voice cracked once as he said his goodbyes, but he never lost his composure.

“I thought I’d never be free, but I am free now,” he said.

No one spoke as he was dying until the warden broke the silence. “Time of death, 10:38 a.m.,” Warden Donald Morgan called out when the curtain opened at 10:39 a.m.

The people in the three witness rooms remained silent as they were ushered out.

Garner was sentenced to death for killing the children in the home of Addie Mack after he stole her purse from a phone booth at University Hospital and broke into her apartment.

During the 40 minutes inside the witness rooms, Mack, who lost three daughters in the fire, turned a few times to look at her son, Rod Mack, the only one to survive the fire.

About 10 anti-death penalty advocates stood in the drizzling rain during the execution.

Up to the moment of his death, Garner, who has an IQ of 76 and was considered borderline retarded, maintained he never intended for the children to die, and was only trying to cover up the fact that he stole a television set, a VCR, a boom box and phone from the home.

Rod Mack jumped from the window and was found shivering in the snow when emergency crews arrived. He told the police he heard his sisters screaming.

The girls died huddled together.

Garner took a cab from the apartment to a United Dairy Farmers where he bought Hawaiian Punch, a jelly cake and candy.

For his last meal at the Death House on Monday, Garner also had Hawaiian Punch and an assortment of food that included a Porterhouse steak, barbeque chicken and ribs, sweet potato pie, fried shrimp and chocolate ice cream.

Garner declined the standard prison breakfast Tuesday morning, as well as a sedative, in the hours before his death.

He spent the early morning hours with his mother, Patricia Garner, his sister Lisa Ross, his friend Evans, spiritual leaders, the defense counsel and his niece – the only person to witness his death on his behalf.

“He is finally at peace and that was very important,” his older sister Ross said after his death. She said she hoped the family members of sisters Denitra Satterwhite, 12, Deondra Freeman, 10, Mykia Mack, 8; the girls’ cousin Markeca Mason, 11, and neighbor Richard Gaines, also 11, could one day forgive him.

Marshandra Jackson, who lost her daughter Markeca, quietly wept during the 40-minute process that started with prep-work and the insertion of two shunts while Garner was in his holding cell. The preparations were broadcast into the witness rooms through video monitors.

He then took 17 steps into the death chamber and climbed on the gurney.

Garner arrived in Lucasville on Monday, a place where he first was admitted to death row all those years ago when the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility sent people to death by the electric chair. The prison at the time was the only one in the state to house death row inmates.

Much has changed since then.

The electric chair has since been replaced first with a lethal cocktail of drugs and then more recently to the sole drug Thiopental Sodium.

Garner, who sentenced shortly after he turned 20, had been housed at the Mansfield Correctional Facility since 1995, where he lived alone in a 94-square-foot cell.

When not in trouble, he was permitted out of his cell for up to 2½ hours a day.

Garner found trouble, though. Reports from the correction department say he was cited 13 times for infractions ranging from having sex with inmates to throwing fluids on workers to violent outbursts and fighting.

Garner and his twin Willie, who were born on Sept. 26, 1972, went by the names Peewee and Pappy, respectively.

Garner suffered abuse and got into trouble early, court records show.

At the age of 5, he kicked a teacher and threw temper tantrums.

Garner was beaten by his mother and her boyfriends, as well as by a brother who had sexually assaulted him, according to court records.

That brother was picked up on a warrant Tuesday as he stood outside the prison walls before the execution. The infraction was that he allegedly failed to register as a sex offender in Hamilton County.

Garner started getting in trouble with the law at the age of 10. He failed the second-, fourth- and sixth-grades, court records say.

There were theft charges, criminal trespass and another theft charge all before his 11th birthday. Many followed ranging from breaking and entering, to assault to disorderly conduct.

“He was ready. Peewee had been ready,” Ross said of her brother’s execution Tuesday. “… Through the years, we prepared for this day.”

More, including video;
news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20100713/NEWS010702/307130029/

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Family: Ohio man peaceful before being executed

A man executed for the murders of five children in a 1992 apartment fire had forgiven himself for what he considered to be an accident and was peaceful as he went to the death chamber, his sister said.

William Garner, 37, died at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on Tuesday, 18 minutes after a lethal injection began.

Garner, who received Holy Communion the morning of his execution, was calm entering the execution chamber, said his sister Lisa Ross, who referred to him as Peewee.

"He was in peace, and he was ready to go," said Ross, who visited Garner in the hours before he died. "He can never say sorry enough to the family and hopes this will bring them some peace. He was upbeat and ready to go. It was so amazing."

As Garner lay on the execution table, he held a dreadlock of hair from a female friend and read a mostly inaudible, lengthy final statement from notebook paper held by the execution team leader. He thanked several people and the state.

Garner said he was "heartily sorry" for his "carelessness."

"God bless everyone who has been robbed in this procedure," he said. "I thought I'd never be free, but I'm free now."

As Garner's lethal injection was administered, he looked at his niece and legal team before closing his eyes. An execution team member used a stethoscope to check for a heartbeat before a curtain along a window separating Garner from witnesses was closed.

Prisons Director Ernie Moore said the execution marked a first in the way in which the inmate's time of death was determined.

While the initial stethoscope check showed no sign of life, Garner received a full medical check again behind the curtain, and a coroner thought a faint heartbeat could be detected, Moore said. After waiting five minutes, Garner was re-evaluated, and no heartbeat or other signs of life were detected, Moore said.

The time of death was determined to be 10:38 a.m., and the curtain was reopened, after having been closed for 10 minutes. Moore said the process used went according to protocol.

Garner was sentenced to death for the Jan. 26, 1992, pre-dawn deaths of the children in the Cincinnati apartment of Addie Mack, who was in the emergency room of a nearby hospital. Garner stole keys from her purse while she received care and took a cab to the apartment to steal a television, a radio, a VCR and a telephone. Four girls and two boys, ages 8 to 13, were at the apartment alone, and Garner knew they were there when he threw a lit match onto a couch.

Garner admitted setting the fire in an attempt to destroy evidence of the burglary but said he thought the children would escape.

Only one child, Mack's 13-year-old son, Rod Mack, made it out alive.

Rod Mack, wearing a shirt and tie, watched the execution quietly with several others, including his mother, who lost three daughters in the fire, Marshandra Jackson, who lost a daughter, and Carl Freeman, the father of two of the girls. They did not comment after the execution.

Because so many people wanted to witness the execution on behalf of the victims, the prison opened a second viewing room, spokeswoman Julie Walburn said. Six witnesses for the victims and Garner's niece and legal team were accommodated in the witness room facing the execution chamber, and another three victims' witnesses watched on closed-circuit TV in the spillover room, she said.

Garner spent his final hours watching television and talking on the telephone with his twin brother and female friend. He visited with his mother, sister, other relatives, spiritual advisers and legal team.

Garner had said a secondary motivation for setting the fire was to draw attention to the children's squalid living conditions. He told police that he had noticed the bedroom "full of girls" and that one of them had asked him for water, which he provided, according to a report by the Ohio Parole Board. He also said he had been in another bedroom where the two boys slept.

His lawyers had argued that the death sentences be set aside because Garner had developmental disabilities, a limited IQ and a violent, abusive upbringing that caused him to function on the level of a 14-year-old at the time of the deaths, when he was 19.

Garner is the sixth person executed in Ohio this year and the 39th put to death by the state since it resumed the practice in 1999.

More;
www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/family-ohio-man-peaceful-before-being-executed-810085.html