Lawrence Reynolds

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Get Well Soon, Lawrence Reynolds... So Ohio Can Execute You

Opinion by Amnesty International

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, a former prison psychologist, admits that he recognizes the irony. His state is keeping Lawrence Reynolds alive, on suicide watch, so they can execute him Tuesday morning. Reynolds attempted suicide by overdosing on pills on Sunday and was rushed to the hospital where his life was saved. The Governor postponed his execution, original scheduled for March 9, to give him sufficient time to recover so that the Buckeye state can kill him properly.
“It is ironic, obviously, that you would work to keep someone alive when they are scheduled to be executed,” the Governor said. “Ironic” may be putting it mildly. When you adopt a policy (state killing) that directly contradicts basic values (life is precious), absurd and morally dubious practices like this are inevitable.
What is ironic is that, back in May 2007, the state of Ohio executed Christopher Newton, who “volunteered” to be put to death by giving up his appeals. He even refused to cooperate with those investigating the crime he committed unless they promised to seek the death penalty. The state of Ohio was surely assisting Newton in committing suicide on that day, though they nearly botched it by taking 90 minutes to find a vein to administer his lethal injection.
(Nationally, there have been 135 of these “voluntary” executions, representing over 10 percent of all executions since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.)
The Governor’s lame excuse for this current predicament is that his government is required to “observe the law as we understand it.” Of course, the law also allows the Governor to commute death sentences, or even impose a moratorium on all executions in his state, as many, including Amnesty International, are urging him to do.
To read more or access links within article;
www.opposingviews.com/i/get-well-soon-lawrence-reynolds-so-ohio-can-execute-you

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Killer who attempted suicide arrives at Lucasville for execution

Convicted killer Lawrence Reynolds, whose suicide attempt postponed his execution for a week, arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville shortly after 10 a.m. today.

Reynolds, 43, was transported to the Lucasville prison, where executions take place, from the Ohio State Penitentiary, a trip of about 250 miles.

He is scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Tuesday for the Jan. 11, 1994, strangulation and beating death of Loretta Foster, 64, his Akron neighbor.

On March 7, Reynolds tried to kill himself with an overdose of a prescription pills. He was hospitalized after being found unconscious in his cell, but was treated and returned to prison within 48 hours.

An investigation is under way into how Reynolds, while under an around-the-clock watch on Death Row at the state's maximum-security prison, obtained drugs sufficient to cause an overdose.

His suicide attempt prompted Gov. Ted Strickland to use his executive clemency power to grant a one-week reprieve.

Reynolds would be the third Ohioan to be executed this year and the 36th since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999. Another seven executions are scheduled for the remainder of the year.

To read more;
www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/15/execute-reynolds.html?sid=101

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The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether to delay the execution of an Ohio inmate challenging the state's lethal injection procedure and who last week overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt.

Lawrence Reynolds Jr. was convicted of strangling his 67-year-old neighbor in 1994 in Cuyahoga Falls.

His attorneys are asking the Supreme Court for more to time to make their case that Ohio hasn't corrected problems with accessing inmates' veins before a new single-drug method of lethal injection is used.

The 43-year-old Reynolds is being closely monitored as the state on Tuesday will try for a third time to execute him. Reynolds was to have been executed last week but was found unconscious in his cell and hospitalized. His original execution datewas postponed last fall while the state reviewed its execution procedure.

To read more;
www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-tries-for-3rd-time-to-execute-inmate-600228.html

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A Death Row inmate whose execution was delayed a week following a failed suicide attempt was transferred to the Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility this morning, in advance of his scheduled lethal injection Tuesday.
Lawrence Reynolds, sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly Cuyahoga Falls neighbor, arrived at the prison in Lucasville just after 10 a.m.
He will spend much of the day in a holding cell 17 steps from the execution chamber where he is scheduled to take his last breaths. He has 10 people on an approved visitor list, though it is still unknown whether Reynolds will be allowed contact visits later today.
Reynolds has been on an around-the-clock suicide watch following his attempted overdose last week. Julie Walburn, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said mental health staff were evaluating Reynolds to determine whether to keep him on a suicide watch. They will determine whether the inmate will be allowed visitors this evening and whether those visits would be contact sessions.
Reynolds requested a special meal of a steak, pork chops, jumbo fried shrimp, fried cheese sticks, french fries, onion rings, fried mushrooms, black cherries, black walnuts and Dr Pepper.
Three relatives of Reynolds' murder victim plan to witness his execution: Denise Turchiano, a niece; Kelly Redfern, a great niece; and Patty Solomon, a granddaughter. Reynolds’ two attorneys and a friend plan to witness the execution on his behalf.
In January 1994, Reynolds conned his way into the home of Loretta Mae Foster, a 67-year-old neighbor. He beat her with a tent pole, tied her up with a telephone cord and strangled her to death.
Reynolds took about $40 in cash and a blank check belonging to the victim; Foster's nude body was later found on the floor of her house, after Reynolds bragged to friends about the killing. He was convicted for murder, kidnapping, burglary and attempted rape and sentenced to death.
Reynolds was supposed to be executed a week ago but was found unconscious in his cell at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown just hours before he was to be transported to Lucasville.
He later admitted to prison staff that he was attempting suicide using prescription medicine.
Prison officials have not yet released information from their investigation on how Reynolds obtained enough pills to attempt an overdose — whether he hoarded his own prescription over time or received pills from other inmates.
Reynolds was returned to the prison and has been under an around-the-clock suicide watch since then. He will be under constant observation while in the Death House.

www.fallsnewspress.com/news/article/4788886

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Area woman's killer files appeal to delay execution

The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether to delay the execution of an Ohio inmate challenging the state's lethal injection procedure and who last week overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt.

Lawrence Reynolds Jr. was convicted of strangling his 67-year-old neighbor, Loretta Foster, in 1994 in Cuyahoga Falls.

His attorneys are asking the Supreme Court for more to time to make their case that Ohio hasn't corrected problems with accessing inmates' veins before a new single-drug method of lethal injection is used.

The 43-year-old Reynolds is being closely monitored as the state on Tuesday will try for a third time to execute him. Reynolds was to have been executed last week but was found unconscious in his cell and hospitalized. His original execution date was postponed last fall while the state reviewed its execution procedure.


To read more;
www.ohio.com/news/break_news/87654347.html

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Court Declines To Stop Suicidal Inmate's Execution

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to stop the execution of a death row inmate who strangled an elderly neighbor in 1994 and who last week tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills.

Lawrence Reynolds Jr., 43, had asked the high court for a delay while he challenged Ohio's lethal injection procedure. The court refused without comment to intervene in Tuesday's execution.

Reynolds was convicted of killing Loretta Foster, a 67-year-old widow who baby-sat kids in her neighborhood and lived three doors from him in Cuyahoga Falls near Akron.

Prosecutors said Reynolds was an alcoholic who was out of work and needed money to buy booze. He forced his way into Foster's house, strangled her with rope and left with $40 in cash and a blank check from her purse.

This is Ohio's third attempt to execute him.

Gov. Ted Strickland postponed his original execution date last fall while the state reviewed its execution method.

Then last week, just days before his next execution date, prison guards found Reynolds unconscious in his cell from a suicide attempt.

Mental health staff who met with Reynolds on Monday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, which houses the state's death chamber, recommended that he remain under constant observation.

Also, personal property in his cell is being limited to a white T-shirt, a pair of underwear, socks and blue prison pants, said prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn. Reynolds would need special approval for writing materials or headphones, she said.

Prison officials have released few details about Reynonds' suicide attempt. It's unclear whether he had visitors before the overdose or stockpiled medication prescribed for him. Authorities have not identified the drug he took.

Reynolds would be the fourth inmate to die by Ohio's new lethal injection procedure, which uses a one-drug method instead of three.

Death came in just a few minutes for the others.

His attorneys had been challenging the new method, saying the state still hasn't corrected problems with accessing inmates' veins before the single drug is used. Appealing to the Supreme Court was his last legal option.

A message seeking comment was left Monday for his attorneys.

At Lucasville on Monday, Reynolds asked for and received a cup of coffee and spent the morning lying on his bed, Walburn said.

He took a shower in the afternoon, twice called a friend and ordered a special meal that included a Porterhouse steak, pork chops and jumbo fried shrimp, Walburn said.

"He's been calm and cooperative with the staff. He's indicated that he'll cooperate tomorrow," she said.

To read more;
www.wlwt.com/news/22848392/detail.html

Similar postings;
www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/High-Court-Declines-To-Stop-Ohio-Execution-On/J1lssz979kaSuWprlwprBQ.cspx

www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/87699822.html

www2.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/ohio_tries_for_3rd_time_to_execute_inmate/33449/

www.fox8.com/news/wjw-death-penalty-update-txt,0,2019143.story

newstalkradiowhio.com/localnews/2010/03/top-court-deciding-on-lethal-i.html

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Lawrence Reynolds received three separate doses of an anti-anxiety medication while awaiting his execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
Prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said Reynolds, who spent the past week under a suicide watch after a failed drug overdose, received 50 mg doses of Vistaril twice on Monday and again this morning.
“They have said that he is becoming a little more anxious,” Walburn said of Reynolds’ mood during cell-front visits with his attorneys and spiritual advisers this morning.
Reynolds spent much of the night on the telephone and was resting in his cell in the hours before his scheduled lethal injection Tuesday.
The 43-year-old Summit County man, sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of an elderly Cuyahoga Falls neighbor, also visited with his attorneys and two spiritual advisers Monday evening and ate part of a special meal he requested.
He was transferred to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility early Monday morning and spent much of the day in a holding cell 17 steps away from the state's execution chamber.
Reynolds remained under a suicide watch during the morning and was allowed only prison-issue clothing in his cell and no other personal belongings, Walburn said.
The suicide watch was lifted just after noon, and he was allowed to read letters received over the past week that were withheld. The letters were the only personal belongings Reynolds requested after the suicide watch was lifted, Walburn said.
Reynolds met with two attorneys from the Ohio Public Defender's Office and two spiritual advisers during contact visits Monday evening.
Afterward, he was served a special meal of a steak and pork chops (cut into pieces in advance), jumbo fried shrimp, fried cheese sticks, french fries, onion rings, fried mushrooms, black cherries, black walnuts and Dr Pepper.
He did not finish the french fries, onion rings, pork chop, shrimp, cherries, walnut or chocolate fudge, Walburn said.
After his special meal, Reynolds made phone calls to female friends and to his mother, the latter lasting about 20 minutes. He did not sleep, spending much of the night on the phone.
Reynolds’ execution is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Three relatives of Reynolds' murder victim plan to witness his execution: Denise Turchiano, a niece; Kelly Redfern, a great niece; and Patty Solomon, a granddaughter. Reynolds two attorneys, a spiritual adviser and a friend plan to witness the execution on his behalf.

www.fallsnewspress.com/news/article/4789404

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Ohio is scheduled to try for the third time Tuesday to execute an inmate whose lethal injection was postponed when he tried to kill himself on death row by overdosing on pills.

Lawrence Reynolds, 43, who strangled his neighbor in 1994 to get money to buy alcohol, was supposed to die by lethal injection last week. But Gov. Ted Strickland rescheduled the execution after prison guards found him unconscious in his cell from a suicide attempt.

Reynolds, who was released from a hospital, is under constant observation at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, which houses the state's death chamber.

He would be the fourth inmate to die by Ohio's new lethal injection procedure, which uses a one-drug method instead of three. His original execution date of Oct. 8 was postponed while the state reviewed its procedures.

Reynolds was convicted for the 1994 killing of Loretta Foster, a 67-year-old widow who baby-sat children in her neighbor and lived three doors down from him in Cuyahoga Falls near Akron.

Prosecutors said Reynolds was an alcoholic who was out of work and needed money for booze. He forced his way into Foster's house, strangled her with rope and left with $40 in cash and a blank check from her purse.

Reynolds spent Monday making numerous late-night phone calls to his mother and friends and hasn't slept, said prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn. Two examinations showed that his veins appeared to be accessible and palpable, she said.

He's been calm but is becoming anxious, Walburn said. He requested and was given Vistaril, a sedative used to treat anxiety and tension. He also met Tuesday morning with his attorneys and two spiritual advisers.

Reynolds had been challenging Ohio's new lethal injection procedure, saying the state still hasn't corrected problems with accessing inmates' veins before the single drug is used. But he lost his final court battle Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene without comment.

Prison officials have released few details about Reynolds' suicide attempt. It's unclear if he had visitors before the overdose or stockpiled medication prescribed for him. Authorities have not identified the drug he took.

Reynolds' crime shattered the victim's family and tore apart his own.

Foster was like a grandmother to kids in the neighborhood and even baby-sat for Reynolds' three younger siblings. Reynolds had few family visits while in prison, and his parents wanted nothing to do with his request for clemency last summer.

Reynolds' childhood was marred by alcohol abuse, according to prison records. He graduated from high school and then spent six years in the Army. When he returned home, he couldn't hold down a job because of late-night drinking binges.

About a month before her murder, Foster hired Reynolds to paint her basement. Reynolds claimed he was promised $300 but only got $100, prosecutors said.

Reynolds harassed the widow for weeks - knocking on her door after dark, hiding outside and jumping out to scare her.

He went to the widow's house again on Jan. 11, 1994, wearing camouflage clothing and carrying a wooden tent pole, which he used to beat Foster when she reached for a phone and tried to call for help, prosecutors said. Then he strangled her and removed her clothes.

At a bar later that night, Reynolds told a group of friends what happened. Unsure whether to believe him, the group went to Foster's house and saw her body lying on the floor.

Two of the friends went to a police station and reported what they saw. Detectives who arrived at Reynolds' house arrested him, seizing the camouflage outfit, gloves, tent pole and blank check from Foster's purse.

At the trial, Reynolds' defense team didn't deny that Reynolds was responsible for the murder but attempted to show that he was drunk and had not gone to Foster's house intending to kill her.

He was convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and attempted rape.

www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/534885.html?nav=5021

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Ohio executes inmate who killed neighbor in 1994

Ohio has executed an inmate who robbed and strangled his 67-year-old neighbor in 1994 to get money to buy alcohol.

Lawrence Reynolds Jr. died by lethal injection at 10:27 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. His death came nine days after Reynolds overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt that delayed his execution by a week.

The 43-year-old Reynolds was convicted for the 1994 killing of Loretta Foster, a widow who lived three doors down in their Cuyahoga Falls neighborhood near Akron.

Prosecutors said Reynolds was an alcoholic who was out of work and had little money. He forced his way into Foster's house, strangled her with rope and left with $40 in cash and a blank check from her purse.

abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=news/state&id=7332894

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Lawrence Reynolds Jr. is finally dead.

If the condemned inmate had his way, his death would have come nine days ago in his death row cell with a suicidal overdose.

Instead, prison guards and medical staff nursed him back to consciousness so that his death could happen Tuesday with a state-administered lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.

Reynolds, 43, was pronounced dead at 10:27 a.m. His body was to be cremated and his remains given to a female acquaintance.

Seated inside the state's death house were three relatives of Loretta Foster, the 67-year-old neighbor whom Reynolds beat, strangled and robbed 16 years ago in Cuyahoga Falls.

‘‘The law has been upheld and justice has been served,’’ said Patty Solomon, a granddaughter of Foster's who witnessed her former neighbor's execution.

She read a statement to reporters after the execution noting the ‘‘hurdles’’ her family has overcome and that even Reynolds' death could not change the fact Foster was ‘‘senselessly taken from us.’’

‘‘It is now our time to heal,’’ she concluded without taking questions.

Reynolds, who had never denied his guilt, failed in his appeals of the state's new lethal injection process, which eliminated two other drugs from the protocol.

He offered no apology when given a chance to make a last statement from a gurney minutes before he became the fourth Ohio inmate executed with the single drug.

‘‘I came in like a lion and go out like a lamb,’’ he said. ‘‘To my brothers [on death row], I hope they never have to walk these 15 steps I walked today. I have tried to bring attention to the futility and flagrantly flawed system we have today. Stop the madness.’’

The remarks caused Foster's niece and execution witness Denise Turchiano to scoff.

‘‘It's going to stop now. Right now,’’ she said as she held Solomon's hand.

The Rev. Ernie Sanders, who met with Reynolds prior to the execution and served as the inmate's spiritual advisor, said Reynolds intended to apologize to the Foster family.

Reynolds and his family grew up in a house three doors down from the Foster family. Loretta Foster would baby-sit Reynolds' siblings on occasion.

Sanders said Reynolds has expressed remorse privately but has difficulty sharing and speaking.

He said the suicide attempt March 7 was done to prevent the ‘‘sideshow’’ of an execution. Reynolds was scheduled to die March 9, but Gov. Ted Strickland delayed it a week to allow the inmate time to recover from the near fatal dose of a prescription drug.

‘‘He just kind of wanted to die all by himself,’’ Sanders said.

The state is still investigating the suicide attempt. Reynolds is said to have hoarded pills prescribed for him. Prison officials will not say what kind of drug he had taken.

During the night before his execution, Reynolds asked for and received medication on three occasions to ease his emotions. He was compliant throughout the execution process, keeping his eyes open and fixed on the ceiling as the lethal dose of drug was injected. His death came in less than nine minutes without any overt body movements.

Solomon was seated in the middle of three chairs given to Foster's family. She was flanked by Turchiano and Foster's great-niece, Kelly Redfern. The women held each other while seated in the death house for nearly 30 minutes.

Redfern held a butterfly ornament; Solomon clutched a crucifix.

Solomon barely spoke, but Turchiano on occasion would whisper in Solomon's ear, wink and chuckle.

Reynolds' witnesses, who included his attorneys and ministers, said nothing during the process.


To read more;
www.ohio.com/news/87776762.html

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Murderer’s last words: ‘Stop the madness’

When it was time for Lawrence Reynolds to speak his last words, he could have expressed remorse for snuffing out the life of a family friend, an elderly widow who had been his siblings' baby sitter.

But the words would not come, as was often the case with the introverted Reynolds. Instead, he lashed out at the "flagrantly flawed system we have today. Stop the madness!"

About 10 feet away in the Death House, separated from the condemned man by a pane of glass, the niece of murder victim Loretta Foster reacted angrily.

"Yeah, yeah. It's gonna stop now, right now," Denise Turchiano said.

It did. At 10:27 a.m. yesterday, Reynolds, 43, was pronounced dead at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. He was given a large, lethal dose of thiopental sodium, a powerful anesthetic.

Thus ended a 16-year saga that began on Jan. 11, 1994, when Reynolds entered the 67-year-old woman's home in Cuyahoga Falls in Summit County, robbed her, beat her with a wooden tent pole, and strangled her with a rope.

The Rev. Ernie Sanders, Reynolds' spiritual adviser, said yesterday that Reynolds told him he planned to tell Foster's family he was sorry for what he had done.

"He wanted to express remorse," Sanders said. "It's hard to understand, but he just didn't know how."

Sanders said Reynolds was disappointed that his March7 suicide attempt by an overdose of a prescription medication was unsuccessful.

"He didn't ever want to be the center of attention," he said. "He didn't want his last act to be part of what he considered to be a sideshow or a circus. He just kind of wanted to die all alone."

During his 24 hours at the Lucasville prison, Reynolds asked for and was given anti-anxiety medication on three occasions.

As prison medical technicians connected IV lines to his right and left arms, Reynolds lay motionless, staring at the ceiling. He was wobbly when he got to his feet and needed help to make the 17-step walk to the Death Chamber.

The drug began flowing into his veins at 10:19 a.m. Within two minutes, Reynolds' eyes closed and shortly after that he lay motionless on the lethal-injection table.

Patty Solomon, Foster's granddaughter, read a statement afterward that said, in part, "The law has been upheld and justice has been served. ... It is time to put this behind us and move on with our lives.

"It is now our time to heal."

To read more;
www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/17/copy/murderers-last-words-stop-the-madness.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

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Report says Reynolds tried suicide before execution to deprive state the satisfaction


Two days before his scheduled execution, condemned inmate Lawrence Reynolds hoarded an antidepressant to deprive the state of the ''satisfaction of killing him.''

A report Ohio prison officials released Thursday concludes Reynolds probably hoarded his own prescription of Elavil and may have gotten more from death row inmates prescribed the same antidepressant.

Reynolds' plan to overdose also included a hope that, if he survived, he would be given a stay of execution until the fall.

The revelations are contained in a report made following an interview with Reynolds, who was described as uncooperative.

''He stated that his intention was to end it and not give the state any satisfaction of killing him,'' investigator Mike Wylie wrote in his report.

Prison officials on March 7 found Reynolds unconscious in his cell. They then went about an ironic rescue: reviving him and nursing him back to health in order to execute him.

Blood tests showed Reynolds had more than triple the toxic level of the drug in his system.

Some fellow inmates said Reynolds spoke of ''doing something stupid'' before his execution. One quoted Reynolds as promising he was ''not going to go out like that.''

Reynolds' execution was delayed only a week. He was executed by lethal injection March 16 for the 1994 murder of his former neighbor, Loretta Mae Foster, 67.

A separate investigation into Reynolds' suicide attempt does not recommend disciplining prison guards or medical staff at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

It does however, recommend procedural changes for inmates close to their execution date.

The recommendations concern the distribution of medicine, visits with other inmates, inmate searches and the observation of inmates whose execution is looming.

To read more;
www.ohio.com/news/break_news/89138847.html

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Condemned killer hoarded 30 anti-depressants for suicide attempt

www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/25/inmate-pills.html?sid=101

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State paid $6,000 to revive Falls inmate for execution

www.ohio.com/news/break_news/94854479.html