Wilford Berry

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On Friday, February 19 1999 Wilford Berry Jr., a mentally retarded man, became the

first person to be put to death in the State of Ohio in 36 years

He was sentenced to death for the murder of his former employer Charles Mitroff, Jr.

Prosecutors called Berry, ``The Volunteer'' because he had said he would rather die

than remain on death row pursuing appeals that would fail. Berry became the

1st inmate to be put to death in Ohio since 1963; the death penalty was reinstated

there in 1981.

"Wilford Berry had a lifelong history of being mentally ill since age 9,

"He tried to kill himself, and he was brutalized by several adults" as a child.

He was also raped as an adult in prison.

Wilford Berry Jr. died with his eyes open and a mumble - perhaps a prayer - on his

lips as he lapsed into unconsciousness before his lungs claimed their last

sustenance and his heart fell still.
A white nylon curtain separating the death chamber from the witness rooms was
whisked shut to confirm the deed was done.
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility Warden Stephen Huffman then reopened the
curtain and announced simply: 'Wilford Berry was pronounced dead by a physician at
9:31 p.m., Feb, 19, 1999.'
And a mother cried.
Jennie Franklin, mother of the convicted killer, sobbed as Huffman's pronouncement
underlined the reality of what she had just witnessed from four feet away.
With a dose of lethal drugs that worked within nine minutes, the state of Ohio - on

behalf of the people of Ohio - had resumed its use of capital punishment after an

absence of nearly 36 years.
The appearance of the news media witnesses to Berry's execution confirmed he had
died without a word being spoken. They stood uneasy and unsettled against a wall
before relating what they had seen. A reporter from a Cleveland TV station had red
eyes rimmed with tears.
Even William Florio, a private detective and friend of the Mitroff family chosen to
witness Berry's death on their behalf, had cried at the fallout of the death of a man he
wished dead. 'The only thing, when the mother cried out, that bothered me,' Florio
conceded, the moisture in his eyes obvious.

Berry, a tragic figure in life - the product of a torturous childhood from which his
mental illness festered - Berry remained one in death.
He was a man who preferred an afterlife to more life behind the bars in jail.
Outside the prison, death penalty protestors, before 9 p.m., offered prayers that Berry
be spared. After that hour they asked God to claim his soul. Some cried.


It is cheaper to incarcerate a murderer for the rest of his/her life than to execute

him or her. Statistics show that the average cost for 40 years of prison is

$600,000 to $700,000. An execution normally runs $2 million to $3.2 million

dollars. The State of Ohio spent at least $1.5 million to kill Wilford Berry who

wanted to be executed. Among the costs were: $18,147 overtime for prison

employees and $2,250 overtime for State Highway Patrol officers at the time of

execution. This does not include overtime for 25 prison public information

officers who worked the night of the execution and $88.42 for the lethal drugs.

Attorney General Betty Montgomery had 5-15 prosecutors working on the case.

Between 5 and 10% of the annual budget for the state's capital-crimes section

was devoted to the Berry case for 5 years. Keeping Berry in prison for his entire

life would have cost approximately half as much. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/28/99)

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Jay D. Scott executed June 14, 2001

Scott shot and killed a Cleveland woman during an attempted robbery of

her delicatessen. The next day he shot and killed a security guard outside a

Cleveland seafood restaurant. He was executed at Southern Ohio Correctional

Institution, Lucasville, Ohio.
A diagnosed schizophrenic, Scott spent the final day and a half of his life at the
Death House at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, meeting with family, an
Islamic spiritual adviser, and his lawyers, and eating a last meal of fish, hot sauce,
and Pepsi.
He spent much of his time in a cramped cell with a cot, a television, and a tiny
window through which visitors could make contact with him. It was a routine he had
followed twice before on April 17 and May 15, when his execution was delayed just
before it was to take place.
The bearded, graying, 48-year-old black man was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m.,
paying the ultimate price for the robbery slaying of Vinnie Prince, the elderly owner
of a Cleveland delicatessen, on May 6, 1983. Addressing three members of his
family witnessing his execution, Scott said: "Spook, George, Randy. I love you all.
Tell my family and friends I send my love. Don't worry. Tell them I'm all right."
Ted Wendling, a Statehouse reporter for the Plain Dealer who attended Scott's execution said,
"It's sort of like a badge of honor. I think of that as a domestic version of being a war correspondent."

But it is not a badge Wendling cares to earn twice. Since seeing Scott put to death, Wendling has not
volunteered to witness another execution.

Scott's execution had already been halted twice at the eleventh hour when Wendling, and the other
witnesses gathered for a third time in Lucasville.

From the witness room, Wendling watched with Scott's brothers as his sentence was carried out.

"There's this terrible moment, where you can see the chest stop heaving, where you realize, 'I just
watched somebody die,'" Wendling said. "And more so, 'I just watched the state put somebody to
death.'"

"And I'm just shaking and watching the brothers in one of the most private moments of their lives, and I
was sort of reluctant to say anything to them, but I sort of wanted to and needed to."

Wendling apologized to Scott's brothers for intruding on the moment and delicately asked if they had
any public comment. One responded.

"The guy looks at me with complete contempt in his eyes and says, 'I hope the Lakers win tonight.'"

"I'll never forget that moment," Wendling said. "I was a voyeur to this guy's suffering, watching his
brother die, and I just thought, 'I'm not doing this again.'"

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John Byrd executed February 19, 2002

On March 14, 1994, John Byrd Jr. came within hours of execution before a federal

court issued a stay. Byrd had been on Death Row in Ohio for eighteen years.

John Byrd was executed on 19 February in Ohio for the 1983 murder of Monte

Tewksbury. He was convicted on the basis of the disputed testimony of a

jailhouse informant. His co-defendant, who is serving a life prison sentence,

repeatedly stated that it was he, not Byrd, who had killed Monte Tewksbury.

In his final statement, John Byrd said: ''What you are witnessing, for

who so ever is here for this state-sanctioned murder, a cowardice way of hiding

behind the state seal, you don't know what you're doing. I'd like to tell my

family that I love them and stay strong, and to tell my immediate family that I

love them. My brother, that I love him and my sister, that we fought hard.''
"The corruption of the state will fall, Gov. Taft, you will not be re-elected. The rest of you, you know where you can go."


In her statement, Ohio's Attorney General said: ''My thoughts and prayers go

out to the Tewksbury family. Their long wait is finally over. My thoughts and

prayers also go out to the family and supporters of John Byrd. The judicial

process has worked, however slowly. Monte Tewksbury has now received some

measure of justice.''
Byrd chose the electric chair as his method of execution, first scheduled for the previous September, to demonstrate
the brutality of the method, which has not been used in Ohio since 1963. But Ohio banned the chair in November
2001, leaving lethal injection as the sole means of execution.
He said, 'I'm innocent in this case, and I'm not going to make it easy for them to put me down like some
farm animal,'" says David Bodiker, Byrd's lawyer and the director of Ohio's public defender office. "His
means of defiance is to say that society is going to have to do this in the most unpleasant manner
possible."
Byrd went to his death after a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeals.
His fight to avoid execution exposed an unusual amount of rancor among judges in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals who accused each other of holding secret meetings and engaging in questionable tactics to spare Byrd.
Journalist, author and private investigator Martin Yant worked literally to the end of Byrd's life to save him. Martin
said, "Ohio in all probability just executed an innocent man. Equally important, Ohio just needlessly killed a good man.
John W. Byrd Jr. may have been a troubled—and troublesome—young man. But he grew into a self-educated man of
great strength, wisdom and insight. We will continue to fight to prove his innocence even though he is now gone."
To the Byrd Family "Please accept my sincere condolences over John's murder.

God bless you all". Kenny Richey.


AN INNOCENT MAN!!

by Kenny Richey written 19th February 2002

Today they killed a friend of mine
for a crime he didn't do
John Byrd was an innocent man
and THAT they certainly knew!

The Ohio courts and Governor Taft
didn't give a bloody damn
They gleefully sent John to his death
and killed an innocent man.

Why did they ignore the facts
and send John to his death?
Why did they ignore the truth
and steal my friends last breath?

Where was this so called justice
that American's boastfully claim to possess?
Obviously it's just another fallacy
American hypocrisy at it's best!

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Alton Coleman executed April 26, 2002
Alton Coleman was executed by lethal injection for the murder of Marlene Walters on April 26, 2002, at the Southern
Ohio Correctional Facility in Ohio. Harry Walters attended the execution of his wife's murderer.
Coleman was 46 years old.
He was suspected in as many as 8 deaths, plus numerous robberies, rapes and kidnappings during the 5-state spree
with his girlfriend, Debra Denise Brown. Brown is also on Death Row, the only female on Ohio’s death row.
Because of the number of victims, Ohio prison officials decided for the first time to broadcast an execution via closed
circuit to another prison room to accommodate additional witnesses in other States.
Coleman's lawyers say he was abused as a child and his brain was affected by his mother use of drugs and alcohol
while pregnant.
When Coleman was asked if he had a final statement, he began to recite the 23rd Psalm, saying, "The Lord is my
shepard, I shall not want. He leadeth me to green pastures." As he repeated it, the warden pulled the microphone
away from him and Coleman could be seen speaking until he lost consciousness.
Coleman was the only person currently under a death sentence in three states: Ohio, Illinois and Indiana

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Robert “Butch” Buell executed September 25, 2002

Buell was the fifth inmate put to death since Ohio reinstated the death penalty in 1999. He ate his special meal

at 4:06 p.m. Tuesday - a single black, unpitted olive, Prison officials researched, but failed to find, any significance in

the request.

In his final statement he insisted that the "real killer" of an 11-year-old girl 20 years ago was still free.

Robert Buell, 62, directed his statement to the parents of Krista Harrison who he was convicted of raping and

strangling.

"Jerry and Shirley, I didn't kill your daughter. The prosecutor knows that ... and they left the real killer out there on the

streets to kill again and again and again," Buell said moments before his death by injection.

"So that some good may come of this, I ask that you continue to pursue this to the end. Don't let the prosecutor

continue to spin this out of focus and force them to find out who really killed your daughter. That's all I have to say."

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Richard Fox executed February 12, 2003

Richard E. Fox, 47, was executed by injection after being refused clemency and a chance to argue for re-

sentencing. His attorneys said a week earlier that no more appeals would be filed.

He was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

Fox kidnapped, stabbed and strangled Leslie Keckler, 18, of Bowling Green, on Sept. 26, 1989. Her body was found

4 days later in a ditch near the northwest Ohio city. He was convicted in 1990 of aggravated murder and kidnapping.

Fox had confessed. Gov. Bob Taft refused to grant clemency, saying there was no doubt that Fox was guilty.
The 47-year-old politely declined to make a final statement and kept his eyes closed as three drugs were injected into
his arms in the death chamber of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
"No, sir," Fox answered when Warden James Haviland asked if he would like to say any last words.
Facing the ceiling, he avoided looking at witnesses, guards or the warden, who stood next to him. His hands were
open, palms facing up and his eyes were closed, fluttering only briefly as the drugs began to take effect.
Fox swallowed once and pursed his lips. His chest and stomach rose and fell quickly more than a dozen times, the
force of the air causing his lips to sputter and his chin to shudder.
As his breathing appeared to slow, Haviland watched his chest closely for several minutes before nodding to the
doctor to determine the time of death — 10:13 a.m.

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Ernest Martin executed June 18, 2003

Ernest Martin was executed by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m. at the Southern Ohio

Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Martin was convicted of killing Cleveland drug store owner Robert Robinson during a robbery in 1983. Martin made off

with between $38 and $39 in the robbery.

Martin had claimed that another man committed the murder. However, he had dropped a claim of mental retardation
and on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the execution.
In his last words, Martin compared himself to Jesus Christ, who was slandered before his execution.
Andrea Dean, Spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Execution, says there were no execution witnesses
representing Robinson’s family. She says it's the first time that's happened since the state resumed executions in
1999.
Timothy Payne, an assistant public defender representing Martin, told the Ohio Parole Board that Martin was enrolled
in learning disabled classes in school and that his IQ was 77 then. The state says it has measured Martin's IQ at 91
and argues that he had the capability to write a 240-page autobiography.
An IQ of 70 or lower is generally considered one indicator of mental retardation, according to the American
Association of Mental Retardation's guidelines.

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Governor Bob Taft granted clemency to Jerome Campbell on 27 June 2003. The Ohio State Parole Board had

previously recommended clemency for Jerome Campbell by a vote of 6-2. The two dissenting opinions were Betty J.

Mitchel and Olivia A. Karl.

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David Brewer executed April 29, 2003
David Brewer, who brutally attacked and murdered a young Springdale bride in 1985, was put to death by lethal
injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. The time of death was 10:20 a.m.,prison officials said.
Brewer, 44, killed Sherry Byrne after she apparently rejected his amorous advances. Just months before, Byrne had
married a fraternity brother of Brewer's and settled in Springdale, where they planned to raise a family.
He pleaded innocent by reason of insanity and was convicted of aggravated murder and kidnapping.
For his “special meal”, Brewer dined on fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, apple pie and root beer, said Andrea
Dean, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. He visited with his family members,
then had a restful night, she said.
He was awakened at 6 a.m., and had Rice Krispies and water for breakfast, Dean said.
The death was to be witnessed by Byrne's mother, Myrtle Kaylor of Dayton, Ohio, and Byrne's husband, Joe, now
remarried and living in New Jersey with his wife and three children.
Brewer walked briskly into the death chamber and lay on the table. He wore a white V-neck T-shirt, blue pants
with orange stripes and tan boots. Brewer said in his last statement "I'd like to say to the system in Ohio as far
as the death row inmates are concerned, there are some that are innocent. I'm not one of them, but there
are plenty that are innocent. I hope the state recognizes that. That's all I have to say."

The victim's husband, witnessing Brewer's execution, said softly: "Where's your remorse?"
Brewer's execution was delayed about ten minutes because the execution team had trouble fitting the shunts
that would carry the chemicals to his veins into his arm.

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Lewis Williams, Jr. executed January 14, 2004
The condemned man, struggled and yelled out "please God, help me," he had to be carried into the
execution chamber by six guards before being put to death on Wednesday for the 1983 murder of an
elderly woman, prison officials said. Lewis Williams Jr., was given a lethal injection at 10:15 a.m. EST
at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio, for killing Leoma Chmielewski, 76.

"Please God, help me. God, please help. Please hear my cry," Williams shouted as he was strapped onto a
gurney to receive the lethal injection, prison spokeswoman Andrew Dean said.

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

Throughout his two decades on death row, Williams claimed innocence, arguing prosecutors used
trumped-up evidence and coerced witnesses, including testimony from two inmates who testified he
confessed while in jail awaiting trial.
The execution team had to forcibly lift Lewis Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of a table next
door to the death chamber.

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

The execution process, the first that allowed witnesses to see the shunts placed in a condemned inmates' arms, left
witnesses shaken.

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

Reginald Wilkinson, Ohio's prisons director, called it disturbing and traumatic. "It was probably as
traumatic as anything our staff has gone through," he said.
.Williams' peaceful mood while reading the Bible and talking with his lawyer in the hours before his
death disappeared when the execution process began at 9:51 a.m.

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

"I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. God, please help me," Williams said as he was strapped to the execution
table. The diminutive Williams was 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 117 pounds, according to prison
officials. Williams continued to cry out as his mother, Bonnie Williams, 66, of Columbus, sobbed in a room
separated by windows from the death chamber.

He kept pleading even in his final official statement, given at 10:07 a.m. "God, please help me. God,
please hear my cry," Williams said.

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

Williams repeatedly shook his head and tried to lift himself off the preparation bed. He yelled several
times, then would rest his head and speak quietly, appearing to whisper at points and chant at other
points.

One guard standing at his head alternately restrained him and patted his right shoulder to comfort him.
Williams' yells continued after warden James Haviland pulled the microphone away. Williams continued
yelling until 10:08 a.m. when he abruptly stopped speaking. His chest rose and fell a couple times.

He was declared dead at 10:15 a.m.
Discussing Williams's extraordinary behavior, Andrea Dean is blunt.

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

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

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

"It didn't leave me mentally disturbed or anguished," she said. "What affected me was watching his mother have to
observe him acting that way. I think that's what bothered a lot of us, because we had to not only look at him trying not
to die, but we were in there with his mother."
Witnessing an execution is part of her day at the office, even when the killer goes to his death screaming his
innocence.

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

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

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John Glen Roe executed February 1, 2004
Roe was the second Ohio inmate executed since questions were raised over the constitutionality of the drugs used in
Ohio’s lethal injection protocol.
Ohio’s lethal injection protocol includes a paralyzing agent, pancuronium bromide, that could leave the inmate
conscious before death, but cast a chemical veil over the excruciatingly painful effects of death by suffocation and
heart attack.
John Glenn Roe, who maintains his innocence in the shooting death of 20-yearold Donette Crawford, was executed
on Feb. 3.

The disturbing execution of his friend Lewis Williams Jr. left Columbus killer John Glenn Roe wondering before his
execution: How will I die? "I’m feeling nervous, scared, anxious," Roe said during an interview on Death
Row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.

"I definitely ain’t ready for it. I don’t think Lew Williams was ready for it. I don’t think you ever can get ready for
something like that."

But the younger sister of Donette Crawford, the Columbus woman Roe abducted and murdered on Oct. 6, 1984, said
she’s glad Roe is afraid.

"I think he should be nervous and he should be scared," Michelle Crawford of Columbus said. "My sister was scared
to death and he didn’t care."

Crawford plans to witness Roe’s execution.

"He laughed about it. It was all a joke. Now he’s not laughing too much, is he?" Crawford said.

"I totally believe once he’s gone, I can put her to rest and I can go on."

Roe, 41, would be the first person from Franklin County to be executed in nearly 41 years.

Williams, 45, who became friends with Roe on Death Row, struggled with his executioners, pleaded with God and
cried as he was put to death at the Lucasville prison. He was the ninth Ohioan executed since 1999 but the first to
resist.

Roe and Williams were teamed in a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Public Defender challenging one of the lethal drugs used
as cruel and unusual punishment.
Roe said he feared what the muscle-paralyzing drug Pavulon will do to him.

"Lewis read that it was like you were in a tomb or a coma and suffocated," he said. "Suffocation has always been my
biggest fear."

Roe denied killing Crawford, saying he was breaking into a video-game store on the East Side at the time the 20-year-
old woman was abducted from a West Side convenience store and killed.

"I’m a real person. I’m innocent. I don’t want to die like this," Roe said.
"My death won’t bring nobody back.

"A lot of people worrying about dying. I don’t know what movie it was, but they said everybody wants to go to heaven,
but nobody wants to die. I think I can accept death, I just don’t want to accept death like this."
Veterinarians forbid using the same types of drugs for euthanizing pets, in order to avoid inflicting pain on the animals.
Judges in some states have granted stays of execution in response to similar lawsuits.
“We wouldn't put a stray dog to sleep with the drugs we use to execute human beings,” argued State Public Defender
David Bodiker. “Apparently, veterinarians worry more about torturing pets than Ohio’s executioners worry about
torturing human beings.”
Roe was the Ninth person executed in the U.S. in 2004.
On the night before his execution, Roe was described as "cranky" toward the guards who were assigned to execute
him. He spent time with his family and appeared very emotional. For his final dinner, he had a medium-well T-bone
steak with steak sauce, onion rings, macaroni and cheese, butter-pecan ice cream and root beer.
It was reported by the Associate Press that it took guards over 20 minutes to insert shunts into Roe's veins during
which Roe is said to have remained calm. It was also reported that when he was inside the death chamber, Roe
glared at the Crawford family who were in the witness room holding hands. Roe apologized on the execution table
but not for the murder of Donette Crawford. Instead, he blamed others for lying about him and newspapers for not
doing more to help him.
“That son of a pregnant dog never quits does he,” said Don Crawford, the victim’s father and a witness to the execution.
He was pronounced dead on February 3, 2004 at 10:24 a.m. by lethal injection.
“Since Ohio resumed executions of capital offenders in 1999, the dignity of the inmate and the

professionalism of the staff have been a top priority”,. said Steve Huffman, south regional director of the Ohio

Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Today's execution of John Glenn Roe, 41, was no exception. The staff expects the process to be carried out with the
precision and professionalism executions require.
Like Lewis Williams Jr., Roe professed his innocence to the end.
“I’m actually innocent,” he said before a lethal dose of three drugs killed him. “God is my witness. I did not
commit this crime. You are killing an innocent man today.”

[MXB]

March 30, 2004 William Wickline
Wickline, 52, was executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He is the 11th person to be
executed since Ohio resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1999 He was convicted of convicted of murdering and
dismembering a Columbus couple in 1982. The bodies of Christopher and Peggy Lerch were never found after their
August 1982 disappearance.
In Wickline's motion to stop the execution, lawyer David Stebbins argued that Wickline's lawyers did not present
evidence of Wickline's history during the penalty phase of his trial in an attempt to avoid a death sentence.
Wickline was moved from death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution on Monday morning. He spent most
of the day talking on the phone to his brother, David Wickline of Columbus, or chatting with members of the
execution team, prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. Dean said that about 4 p.m., Wickline was served his
"special meal" of an eight-ounce filet mignon, medium rare; potato salad; six rolls with butter; fresh strawberries
with shortcake; and butter pecan ice cream. The steak came from the prison kitchen. The other ingredients were
bought at a local store for $11.66. He also received four packs of Pall Mall cigarettes and six cans of pop,
including three of Mountain Dew. Wickline met with a spiritual adviser, Rev. Gary Sims, a Baptist minister who is
the prisons department's religious services administrator.
In his final statement, William Wickline stated: “May tomorrow see the courts shaped by more wisdom and
less politics.” He was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
William Wickline became the 21st person to be executed in the USA in 2004, and the 906th since judicial killing
resumed there in 1977. Mr. Wickline’s execution was the 3rd to take place in Ohio in 2004 and the 11th overall since
the state resumed the use of the death penalty in 1999.

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William Zuern 8th June 2004
William G. Zuern, formerly of Price Hill, died at 10:04 for the murder of a Hamilton County jailer.
Zuern was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of Hamilton County corrections officer Phillip Pence 20 years ago.
His chest heaved several times, and his lips parted with slightly labored breathing for several minutes before his
breathing stopped forever.
Zuern's face and shaved head turned lightly purple before prison officials drew a curtain between Zuern and the
witnesses at 10:03 a.m. After a prison doctor performed a quick examination, the curtain was reopened and Warden
James Haviland drew a microphone to his mouth and said, "Time of death 10:04 a.m."
Zuern was placed on his back on a padded table to be prepped for his death. Technicians placed shunts into both of
his outstretched arms as Zuern alternately closed his eyes and narrowly opened them. His face remained stoic
throughout the process, which took several minutes and caused him to bleed visibly out of his right arm. He was
dressed in a prison-issued white shirt, blue pants with red stripes running down each side, and white socks. He wore
his own brown hiking boots.
His head was shaven, and he wore a thick beard without a moustache.
Zuern complied with every command, lifting his hands to be placed in handcuffs before he was led into the death
chamber.
The chamber was dimly lit with a tiled floor and cinder block walls painted white.
Warden Haviland picked up a microphone and asked, "Mr. Zuern, do you have any last statement you would like to
make?"
"Nope," was Zuern's terse reply as he continued to stare at the ceiling.
He never turned to see witnesses in either of two small rooms that were separated from the death chamber by
windows.
Haviland gave a secret command at 9:58 a.m. to begin injecting the drugs, and two officials turned on IVs to begin
pouring drugs into his veins. Only one of the two cocktails contained the lethal drugs, and neither operator knew which
one was real and which was harmless, according to Andrea Dean, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department for
Rehabilitation and Correction.
Within two minutes, Zuern's breathing became faint, and within three, breathing was no longer visible. By 10:01, his
head began turning purple.
After Zuern was pronounced dead, witnesses were led back through a courtyard where a black Cadillac hearse
awaited.
Zuern was transported to a local funeral home and will be buried in a state-run cemetery adjacent to a prison in
Chillicothe. His family did not have the means to arrange a private burial, Dean said.

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Stephen Vrabel 14th July 2004 VOLUNTEER
Stephen Vrabel was executed, for the aggravated murders of his live-in companion, Susan Clemente, 29, and the
couple's 3-year-old daughter, Lisa Clemente, in 1989.
After shooting his live-in girlfriend of almost four years and their daughter, he placed Clemente's body in the
refrigerator and Lisa's body in the freezer. He continued living at the apartment for several weeks before leaving the
city.
A relative discovered the bodies soon after Vrabel left town, when he stopped by to collect the rent. When Vrabel
learned that the bodies had been discovered, he turned himself in to authorities and confessed to the murders.
According to information released by the Supreme Court of Ohio, Vrabel subsequently was found to be incapable of
assisting in his own defense as a result of mental illness, and therefore incompetent to stand trial. In 1994, after five
years of confinement in mental hospitals, Vrabel was found sufficiently recovered to stand trial. Throughout his trial,
Vrabel occasionally refused to cooperate with his attorneys and repeatedly petitioned the court to let him represent
himself. After being found guilty, he elected to introduce his own statement as his only evidence in mitigation.
During an interview reported by Vindy.com , the day before his execution, he gave no reason for murdering Susan
Clemente and described Lisa as being "the perfect child." He explained that he placed the bodies in the freezer as an
attempt to slow down decomposition, "somehow, at first I thought I could bring Lisa back to life or something like that,"
said Vrabel.
His last words where,"I want to thank my sister for all the joy and happiness she brought into Lisa's life, and I want to
apologize to anyone I may have wronged in my life."
He was pronounced dead by lethal injection, at 10:14 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility

[MXB]

July 20, 2004 Scott Mink Volunteer
The execution of a man whose drug-fueled rage led him to kill his sleeping parents with a ball-peen hammer
A prison spokesman says Scott Mink was smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, but not eating. He declined
the waffles, cereal, milk and apple juice the prison served him.
The spokesman says Mink remained calm and cooperative.
After pleading guilty to charges of aggravated murder in 2001, Mink asked a three-judge panel in Montgomery County
to sentence him to death.
Scott Mink's execution by injection -- three years after his conviction -- was the quickest an Ohio inmate's death
sentence was carried out since the state re-enacted the death penalty in 1981
It is also just a week after the execution Stephen Vrabel, who also dropped his appeals.
Mink pleaded guilty to killing his parents four years ago because they hid the keys to his truck to keep him from
buying drugs.
Earlier that month, defense attorney Gary Crim told the Ohio Parole Board that Mink wished for no further actions to
stop his execution.
"I think that his life since he woke up after he sobered up and was arrested is full of remorse," Crim said. "That's his
way of remorse, seeking execution."
Mink, 40, was pronounced dead at 10:27 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
"I just thank you for giving me the chance to make a final statement. I have made peace with my family and God," Mink
said before he died.
He gave the thumbs up sign and mouthed "I love you" several times to members of his family who witnessed the
execution.
October 13, 2004 Adremy Dennis.
Dennis was 18 when he and an accomplice tried to rob two men outside an Akron home in 1994. One of the men
gave up $15. The other, Kurt Kyle, 29, began searching his pockets, and Dennis shot him to death.
Dennis blamed Kyle for failing to cooperate and notice that he was high on drugs.
"I ain't saying it's all his fault, but why did he move?" Dennis said from death row. "Every day I think about that. It ain't
'Why did you kill that man?' It's 'Why did you move?'"
Adremy Dennis was 18 years and five months old at the time of the crime, emerging from a childhood of deprivation
and neglect. The State of Ohio, in line with international law, prohibits the execution of people who were

under 18 at the time of the crime, recognizing the immaturity of youthful offenders. Indeed, the state does not allow
anyone under the age of 21 to buy alcohol or anyone under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes.
Adremy Dennis was served alcohol in various bars on the night of the crime. He had smoked marijuana dipped in
embalming fluid. He was immature, impulsive and intoxicated, and armed with a sawn-off shotgun.
Adremy Dennis was born to a 19-year-old mentally unstable mother and an abusive father who she left when her son
was five or six years old. When he was 12 or 13, his mother took a turn for the worse and became, in effect, an
absent parent. Adremy Dennis was eventually taken into case by social services
Accomplice Leroy Lamar Anderson was 17 at the time of the crime and Ohio law prohibits the death penalty for those
younger than 18. He is serving a life sentence.
Twenty-eight-year-old Dennis was the youngest inmate executed in Ohio since 1962, and the 15th to
die since the state resumed the death penalty five years ago.
Attorney General’s spokeswoman Kim Norris says Dennis was pronounced dead by injection at 10:10 a.m. at
the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Dennis’ mother witnessed his execution. She began to sob when the warden asked for a last statement.
Dennis said he is in God’s hands now—he said, “"I'm in God's hands now. Everything's going to be just
the way it was intended. I'll see everybody when they get there."