Inmate not too fat to be executed

[normanvin]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/14/...ion/index.html

Inmate not too fat to be executed, Supreme Court rules

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an Ohio death row inmate's final claim he is too overweight to be executed. He was scheduled to die later Tuesday morning.
Richard Cooey, 41, and an accomplice were convicted of the 1986 murders of two college students.

Richard Cooey, 41, and an accomplice were convicted of the 1986 murders of two college students.

Richard Cooey had exhausted his legal appeals and Gov. Ted Strickland earlier denied the 41-year-old prisoner's clemency petition. Cooey murdered two college students in 1986.

The justices turned down a stay of execution, and the opportunity to address the larger constitutional claims over when a convicted person is medically unfit for capital punishment. The court was also asked to review Ohio's lethal injection procedures, and whether they were cruel and unusual punishment.

His lawyers have argued that the inmate-- at 5-foot-7 and 267 pounds -- is "morbidly obese," and has gained about 70 pounds since his incarceration at age 19. Prison food and confinement in his cell for 23 hours a day, limiting his opportunities for exercise, contributed to his weight problem, his legal team asserted in recent court filings.

Cooey also contends regular medication he takes for migraines will weaken the effectiveness of an anesthetic used in the a three-drug cocktail administered during execution. He says his veins are weakened because of his health issues, and the lethal drugs would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

In 2003, a judge stopped Cooey's execution a day before he was to die on issues unrelated to his health claims.

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Cooey waited too long raise the medical issues, saying Cooey "knew of and could have filed suit over vein access prior to July 2005."
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Cooey and a then-17-year-old accomplice were convicted of the brutal murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery, students at the University of Akron. The men had been tossing concrete slabs onto Interstate 77, and one of them struck Offredo's car.

Pretending to "rescue" the women, Cooey and Clinton Dickens took the victims to a remote field, according to prosecutors. There the students were subjected to a three-and-a-half-hour period of rape, torture, stabbing, and fatal bludgeoning. Cooey carved an "X" into the stomachs of both women, prosecutors said.

Each man blamed the other for delivering the fatal blows, but both were convicted of murder. Dickens received a life sentence because of his age.

Cooey tried to escape from death row in 2005, when corrections officials said he constructed a ladder from magazines and bed sheets in an effort to scale the barrier around an outdoor recreation area.

At an August clemency hearing, Jon Offredo, brother of one of the victims, said, "Our family has never gotten an apology from Richard Cooey. We've gotten blatant lies and excuses. Is an apology too much to ask? How could he commit such an heinous act and not feel regret?"

But Cooey's lawyer, Dana Cole, said his client is sorry for his crimes.

The high court has not offered clear guidelines on what medical standards need to be met before an inmate is eligible for death. But in a case five years ago, the justices allowed inmates to at least make a claim that their specific physical or medical issues could be cause to block an execution.

The high court had sided with a convicted Alabama killer who claimed his veins were so damaged from years of drug abuse that executioners might have to cut deeply into his flesh to administer the deadly drugs.

Writing for the unanimous court, then-Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the court was not going to "open the floodgates to all manner of method-of-execution challenges," as Alabama feared. "Our holding is extremely limited." That inmate is still on death row.

Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a data-resource group that opposes capital punishment, said the Supreme Court indicated that "how you're going to be executed is a civil rights matter, the same as if you were discriminated on the basis of race or gender or something like that."

A Washington state killer was given a 1994 reprieve after claiming he was too obese to hang. Mitchell Rupe at one time was more than 425 pounds, but weight-loss surgery in prison had reduced that to 275 pounds over the years. Subsequent legal efforts to execute him failed. He died in prison two years ago from a long illness.

[jud4420]

Im sorry, but i think this guys deserves cruel and unusual punishment. Thats what he gave to his victims. He didn't just kill them. He caused them to have an accident, and then proceeded to rape and torture these women until finally bludgeoning them to death...

He should receive a similar fate.

[Jaralaccs]

on a side note

A Washington state killer was given a 1994 reprieve after claiming he was too obese to hang. Mitchell Rupe at one time was more than 425 pounds, but weight-loss surgery in prison had reduced that to 275 pounds over the years. Subsequent legal efforts to execute him failed.

how does that get to happen?

[normanvin]

on a side note
how does that get to happen?

I am guessing free medical care in prison..

[RocketFoot]

Wonder why Obama didn't save him? That could have been one more vote for Obama Bin Biden!

[brian]

Im sorry, but i think this guys deserves cruel and unusual punishment. Thats what he gave to his victims. He didn't just kill them. He caused them to have an accident, and then proceeded to rape and torture these women until finally bludgeoning them to death...

He should receive a similar fate.

the legal system is supposed to be above these animals.
but in reality i feel the same way.
after what some of these creatures have done to some of their victims, why should they get the quick clean way out?

[Michele]

Wonder why Obama didn't save him? That could have been one more vote for Obama Bin Biden!

You loose all your "rights" when you are incarcerated. After being released you can regain you "rights" by applying to the governor (i think). Most don't reapply to have their rights restored. What puzzles me to the hilt is that after being released from prison, and applying for a drivers license, all the jury duty stuff starts coming. Imagine an X-Con sitting on a jury. Some jury of your peers stuff huh?

As far as this murderous fat bastard.....I think a firing squad with .50BMG's shot one at a time would do nicely. Probably a whole lot cheaper and allot more painful.

Or,

Can anyone say pig roast?

[RocketFoot]

You loose all your "rights" when you are incarcerated. After being released you can regain you "rights" by applying to the governor (i think). Most don't reapply to have their rights restored. What puzzles me to the hilt is that after being released from prison, and applying for a drivers license, all the jury duty stuff starts coming. Imagine an X-Con sitting on a jury. Some jury of your peers stuff huh?

As far as this murderous fat bastard.....I think a firing squad with .50BMG's shot one at a time would do nicely. Probably a whole lot cheaper and allot more painful.

Or,

Can anyone say pig roast?

True,but don't forget...Obama has ACORN! LOL

[Michele]

True,but don't forget...Obama has ACORN! LOL

I stand corrected!

[Arch007er]

the legal system is supposed to be above these animals.
but in reality i feel the same way.
after what some of these creatures have done to some of their victims, why should they get the quick clean way out?

i agree, i would give them a blood transfusion to keep them alive for weeks to allow the unpleasentries to go on