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Killer who claimed he was too fat is executed
in Ohio.
Nice try. Valiant effort. Adios.
Nice try. Valiant effort. Adios.
Supreme Court rejected appeal that Ohio man could not be killed humanely
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 57 minutes ago
CINCINNATI - Ohio has executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer who argued he was too fat to be killed humanely by lethal injection.
Richard Cooey died at 10:28 a.m. Tuesday.
His attorneys had argued that his weight problem could make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein to deliver deadly chemicals. A prisons spokeswoman says that Cooey received a pre-execution exam and was cleared.
There were no immediate reports of problems finding suitable veins.
Cooey spent most of his last night sitting on his bed and pacing quietly in his cell, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Andrea Carson said. He fell asleep at 4:06 a.m., woke at 5:20 a.m. and did not ask for breakfast. He later met with an attorney and a spiritual adviser.
Cooey was the first inmate executed in Ohio in more than a year.
The 41-year-old Cooey killed two University of Akron students in 1986.
Appeals denied
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied one of two pending appeals to stop the execution. It turned down without comment Cooey's claim that his obesity was a bar to humane lethal injection. The argument also had been rejected by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati and the Ohio Supreme Court, with both courts ruling that he missed a deadline for filing appeals.
Cooey was still waiting for a ruling on his appeal of the Ohio Supreme Court's dismissal Monday of his complaint that the state's protocol for lethal injection could cause an agonizing and painful death. He wanted the state to use a single drug rather than a three-drug combination, and asked for a stay of execution pending a hearing on that motion.
Cooey was 75 pounds heavier than when he went to death row — the result of prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement, his lawyers said.
They also argued that a migraine medicine prescribed by a prison physician could reduce the effect of the anesthetic used as part of the three-drug lethal injection.
They claimed that Ohio has a history of botched executions.
Previous executions
The last Ohio inmate to be executed before Cooey was Christopher Newton — the two men were similar in size — in May 2007. The execution team had trouble putting IVs in his arm, delaying his execution nearly two hours. There were similar problems in the execution of another inmate in 2006.
Cooey made an earlier trip to the death house. But a U.S. District Court judge intervened hours before his scheduled execution in July 2003 when the Ohio Public Defender's office said it needed more time to assess the case after an appeals court dismissed his previous attorneys for inadequate representation.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 57 minutes ago
CINCINNATI - Ohio has executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer who argued he was too fat to be killed humanely by lethal injection.
Richard Cooey died at 10:28 a.m. Tuesday.
His attorneys had argued that his weight problem could make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein to deliver deadly chemicals. A prisons spokeswoman says that Cooey received a pre-execution exam and was cleared.
There were no immediate reports of problems finding suitable veins.
Cooey spent most of his last night sitting on his bed and pacing quietly in his cell, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Andrea Carson said. He fell asleep at 4:06 a.m., woke at 5:20 a.m. and did not ask for breakfast. He later met with an attorney and a spiritual adviser.
Cooey was the first inmate executed in Ohio in more than a year.
The 41-year-old Cooey killed two University of Akron students in 1986.
Appeals denied
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied one of two pending appeals to stop the execution. It turned down without comment Cooey's claim that his obesity was a bar to humane lethal injection. The argument also had been rejected by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati and the Ohio Supreme Court, with both courts ruling that he missed a deadline for filing appeals.
Cooey was still waiting for a ruling on his appeal of the Ohio Supreme Court's dismissal Monday of his complaint that the state's protocol for lethal injection could cause an agonizing and painful death. He wanted the state to use a single drug rather than a three-drug combination, and asked for a stay of execution pending a hearing on that motion.
Cooey was 75 pounds heavier than when he went to death row — the result of prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement, his lawyers said.
They also argued that a migraine medicine prescribed by a prison physician could reduce the effect of the anesthetic used as part of the three-drug lethal injection.
They claimed that Ohio has a history of botched executions.
Previous executions
The last Ohio inmate to be executed before Cooey was Christopher Newton — the two men were similar in size — in May 2007. The execution team had trouble putting IVs in his arm, delaying his execution nearly two hours. There were similar problems in the execution of another inmate in 2006.
Cooey made an earlier trip to the death house. But a U.S. District Court judge intervened hours before his scheduled execution in July 2003 when the Ohio Public Defender's office said it needed more time to assess the case after an appeals court dismissed his previous attorneys for inadequate representation.
I don't give one flying **** how someone is going to be killed if they're going to be killed. Too fat. Not humane. Who gives a ****. You're dead, anyways.
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