Post by MXB on Jul 15, 2006 7:03:25 GMT -5
Rocky Barton Execution Ohio
Pronounced dead at 10:27 a.m, Barton, 49, was executed for the murder of his wife, Kimbirli Barton, on Jan. 16, 2003.
Earlier Wednesday, he had held hands with family members through cell bars at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville.
"They are having a very emotional visit," said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Barton told prison officials he was a little nervous, but he said he is "at peace with what is going to happen this morning," according to Dean.
Warren County prosecutor's officials were transporting county jail inmate Jamie Reising to the Lucasville to witness the execution.
Reising, in jail on drug charges, was at her mother's side as Barton killed her with two shotgun blasts at their Waynesville area home as she tried to get her possessions and leave him.
Reising and her brother, Joseph Reynolds, are to witness the execution on behalf of the victim's family. Barton's father, mother and uncle also are to witness.
Prison officials have been examining Barton's veins Tuesday and Wednesday to make sure there is no repeat of a May 2 execution, in which the execution team could not find viable veins, delaying inmate Joseph Clark's death by 90 minutes.
"He appears to have fine veins, so we don't anticipate any trouble with that this morning," Dean said.
Barton ate all of his "special meal" of pork chops, gravy, hash browns, biscuits and Pepsi, though he saved his cherry pie for breakfast, Dean said.
He phoned his grandmother and a brother who is in the Warren County Jail Tuesday night. He awoke at 4:47 Wednesday morning, showered, dressed and ate breakfast.
Barton, the 22nd Ohio inmate to be executed since 1999, has been on death row for less than three years, the shortest term from conviction to execution in modern times.
He's the fifth "volunteer" to waive his rights to appeal.
There are 194 men and two women on Ohio's death row.
Pronounced dead at 10:27 a.m, Barton, 49, was executed for the murder of his wife, Kimbirli Barton, on Jan. 16, 2003.
Earlier Wednesday, he had held hands with family members through cell bars at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville.
"They are having a very emotional visit," said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Barton told prison officials he was a little nervous, but he said he is "at peace with what is going to happen this morning," according to Dean.
Warren County prosecutor's officials were transporting county jail inmate Jamie Reising to the Lucasville to witness the execution.
Reising, in jail on drug charges, was at her mother's side as Barton killed her with two shotgun blasts at their Waynesville area home as she tried to get her possessions and leave him.
Reising and her brother, Joseph Reynolds, are to witness the execution on behalf of the victim's family. Barton's father, mother and uncle also are to witness.
Prison officials have been examining Barton's veins Tuesday and Wednesday to make sure there is no repeat of a May 2 execution, in which the execution team could not find viable veins, delaying inmate Joseph Clark's death by 90 minutes.
"He appears to have fine veins, so we don't anticipate any trouble with that this morning," Dean said.
Barton ate all of his "special meal" of pork chops, gravy, hash browns, biscuits and Pepsi, though he saved his cherry pie for breakfast, Dean said.
He phoned his grandmother and a brother who is in the Warren County Jail Tuesday night. He awoke at 4:47 Wednesday morning, showered, dressed and ate breakfast.
Barton, the 22nd Ohio inmate to be executed since 1999, has been on death row for less than three years, the shortest term from conviction to execution in modern times.
He's the fifth "volunteer" to waive his rights to appeal.
There are 194 men and two women on Ohio's death row.