Post by carolinem on Oct 15, 2008 10:32:35 GMT -5
Posted by Michael J. McIntyre/Plain Dealer Reporter October 14, 2008 10:25AM
Richard Wade Cooey II today became the 27th man to be put to death since Ohio reinstated executions in 1999.
At 10:16 he was placed on a guerney to be given a lethal combination of sodium pentothal, which induced deep sleep, pancuronium bromide, which stopped his breathing, and postassium chloride, which stopped his heart, flowed into his body through IV tubes in his arm.
Time of death: 10:28 a.m.
The 41-year-old inmate had been on death row since 1986 for his role in the rape and murder of two University of Akron students. Three of his lawyers, Dana Cole, Eric Allen and Greg Meyers, witnessed the execution. On the other side of the witness area -- separated from Cooey's lawyers by a partial wall -- were six members of the family of one of his victims, 20-year-old Dawn McCreery. Also witnessing were six members of the media and several prison staffers.
On Sept.1, 1986, Cooey and an accomplice, Clint penisens, dropped a chunk of concrete off an overpass on I-77, disabling a car driven by 21-year-old University of Akron student Wendy Offredo. They then drove onto the highway and purported to offered assistance to Offredo and her friend and passenger, McCreery. Instead, Cooey and penisens drove the girls to a secluded field in Norton, raped them for hours, then bludgeoned them with a wooden club and strangled them with a shoelace.
During his final night, Cooey went to sleep at 4:06 a.m. Tuesday and awoke, on his own, at 5:20 a.m. He showered and refused breakfast after eating his specially requested meal much of Monday evening. Andrea Carson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation
and Correction said Cooey was quiet most of the night, sitting on his bed and occassionally pacing. He tried to call a friend, but the call didn't go through.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal Tuesday morning. The court rejected denied without comment Cooey's claim that Ohio's lethal injection method could cause a painful death. The court already had rejected his claim that he is too fat to be humanely executed by lethal injection because his obesity would make it too hard for prison officials to find a vein.
Richard Wade Cooey II today became the 27th man to be put to death since Ohio reinstated executions in 1999.
At 10:16 he was placed on a guerney to be given a lethal combination of sodium pentothal, which induced deep sleep, pancuronium bromide, which stopped his breathing, and postassium chloride, which stopped his heart, flowed into his body through IV tubes in his arm.
Time of death: 10:28 a.m.
The 41-year-old inmate had been on death row since 1986 for his role in the rape and murder of two University of Akron students. Three of his lawyers, Dana Cole, Eric Allen and Greg Meyers, witnessed the execution. On the other side of the witness area -- separated from Cooey's lawyers by a partial wall -- were six members of the family of one of his victims, 20-year-old Dawn McCreery. Also witnessing were six members of the media and several prison staffers.
On Sept.1, 1986, Cooey and an accomplice, Clint penisens, dropped a chunk of concrete off an overpass on I-77, disabling a car driven by 21-year-old University of Akron student Wendy Offredo. They then drove onto the highway and purported to offered assistance to Offredo and her friend and passenger, McCreery. Instead, Cooey and penisens drove the girls to a secluded field in Norton, raped them for hours, then bludgeoned them with a wooden club and strangled them with a shoelace.
During his final night, Cooey went to sleep at 4:06 a.m. Tuesday and awoke, on his own, at 5:20 a.m. He showered and refused breakfast after eating his specially requested meal much of Monday evening. Andrea Carson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation
and Correction said Cooey was quiet most of the night, sitting on his bed and occassionally pacing. He tried to call a friend, but the call didn't go through.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal Tuesday morning. The court rejected denied without comment Cooey's claim that Ohio's lethal injection method could cause a painful death. The court already had rejected his claim that he is too fat to be humanely executed by lethal injection because his obesity would make it too hard for prison officials to find a vein.