Ohio Executes Inmate Who Argued Was Too Fat To Die

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

(10-14) 08:38 PDT Lucasville, Ohio (AP) --

Ohio executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer on Tuesday who argued his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane.

Richard Cooey, 41, died at 10:28 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, said Jim Gravelle, a spokesman with state attorney general's office.

There were no immediate reports of difficulties finding suitable veins to deliver the deadly chemicals, a problem that has delayed previous executions in the state.

Cooey's attorneys had argued that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein. A prisons spokeswoman said Cooey received a pre-execution exam early Tuesday and was cleared.

Cooey, who killed two University of Akron students in 1986, walked into the death chamber at 10:15 a.m. wearing gray pants and was strapped onto the gurney.

"You (expletive) haven't paid any attention to anything I've said in the last 22 1/2 years, why would anyone pay any attention to anything I've had to say now," Cooey said looking at the ceiling. He made no other comment.

Cooey tapped the fingers of his left hand several times before he died and his face took on a purple shade.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/13/national/a161635D65.DTL

[YOY]

1. As much as I disagree with the Death Penalty that defense was horrible

n.t.

[brendan120678]

3. If his argument had held up, then death row inmates all over...

the country would be doing their best to put on as much weight as possible.

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. They could have put him on a diet and then executed him

[BoneDaddy]

18. lol really now

this gets ridiculous after awhile

[dmallind]

4. I'm four inches taller and 20lbs heavier

They find my veins just fine. Until the hysteria about anybody who has spent more than a short package holiday in Europe over the last generation being ineligible due to a disease that a tiny fraction of Europeans are at risk for and has never been transmitted by blood transfusions I gave blood on the shortest interval possible.

Whether he deserved to die or not and whether the DP is a good idea or not, that's a bullshit excuse and I say that as fellow fat bastard.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. no more inhumane than the death penalty is generally

[Name removed]

7. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kalifornia.Kid]

6. Get Fat, Jolly or Santa Claus out of your mind ...

Cooey and a co-defendant were convicted in the sexual assaults and slayings of University of Akron students Dawn McCreery, 20, and Wendy Offredo, 21, in September 1986. His co-defendant was 17 and was sentenced to life in prison because of his age.

[deadmessengers]

8. I oppose the death penalty on general principle, but...

fuck this guy. No sympathy from me whatsoever. This guy got a lot easier death than his victims did, that's for damn sure. I am against the death penalty for a lot of reasons, but whether it's "inhumane" to those who really have committed the awful crimes they were convicted of (and it sure looks like that was the case here) isn't one of them.

[tburnsten]

44. Exactly my position

There was no doubt that this guy committed that crime, there is no doubt that it was absolutely horrific, needless, unprovoked, he has no recourse. There is no reason why he should have even been left alive till today. I am strongly against executing people under sketchy circumstances, when there is a realistic chance that they could be innocent, but this scumball? Good riddance.

[edbermac]

9. Story about the crime.

Just after midnight on Sept. 1, 1986, University of Akron sorority sisters Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery finished their shifts at the Brown Derby Restaurant in Montrose, hopped into Offredo's car and set off on Interstate 77.

That same night, Richard Cooey, an army soldier home on leave, and two friends were engaged in vicious horseplay, dropping chunks of concrete off the Stoner Street bridge onto I-77 traffic. Clinton Dickens dropped the concrete that hit Offredo's car and forced her to pull off the road.

The three men offered the women help and lured them into Cooey's car. Then Cooey and Dickens raped, robbed, beat and strangled the young women — the third man demanded to be let out of the car before the violence began — and dumped their bodies in a woods. Offredo, 21, and McCreery, 20, each had an X carved into her abdomen.

"This crime is one of the most brutal we've ever seen in Summit County," said the county prosecutor, Sherri Bevan Walsh. "These were really fabulous girls whose lives were cut way too short."

http://www.zimbio.com/pilot?ID=AIJSqOz-BgH&ZURL=/Wendy+Offredo/news&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.daytondailynews.com%2Fn%2Fcontent%2Foh%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F2008%2F10%2F12%2Fddn101208cooeyweb.html%3Fcxtype%3Drss%26cxsvc%3D7%26cxcat%3D16

So long, fat boy...you won't be missed.

[TomInTib]

11. He wasn't too fat to crawl down a bedsheet ladder, either.

"Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said Cooey has never expressed remorse and has been anything but a model prisoner. In 2005, using a ladder he made out of bedsheets and magazines, he escaped from death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution before being caught between two fences. As recently as July 24, he threatened a prison staff member."

Fuck him.

[mitchum]

23. But...but...but....he was safely locked up where he could never harm any one else again!

Good riddance to a predator

[LisaL]

29. Sounds like the third guy didn't even got charged with anything.

What a prince. Demanded to be let out of the car? How about calling the police after getting out of the car?

[tburnsten]

47. Who says he didn't?

The police can't be everywhere at once, and don't always succeed in finding people they are looking for. The third fellow probably wasn't charged, or at least not with anything serious, in return for being the sole witness. The two of them should have been picked up by a police/coroner's clean up crew with severe acute lead poisoning and massive blood loss, and the third man should have been charged with felony murder for participating/causing the ambush that led to the demise of his loser buddies.

[tburnsten]

46. I find that people often change their mind about the DP

after reading up on what the murderers actually did. Concealed carry of firearms is about the only truly last-ditch defense against this sort of random (or targeted) attack, since trying to rape and murder someone doesn't often work out well when the intended victim has force capability equal to or greater than the attacker.


I am in the National Guard right now, and it makes me sick that an animal like Cooey ever wore a U.S. Army uniform.

[slackmaster]

10. I guess he wasn't too fat to die after all

:shrug:

[AngryAmish]

13. dammit, you beat me to it.

[slackmaster]

36. Reminds me of the song "James Dean" by the Eagles

He was too bad to live, too fat to die, bye-bye!

[mitchum]

12. Just more for the worms to eat, Richey boy!

[Sheets of Easter]

14. One thing I have learned, and is supported by some of the responses in this thread,

is that it's entirely possible to oppose the death penalty, yet not feel much sympathy or pity for a sick asshole like Richard Cooey. What he did was heinous.

[BoneDaddy]

19. Great statement

I disapprove of the death penalty primarily because it has a bad track record. If you are poor or non white you have a greater chance of being innocent and being executed. That said, when it is clear that you have descended into the depths of depravity and their is no doubt of one's guilt, execution is fine from my perspective

[BuddhaGirl]

15. very sad on all sides

I am against death penalty in any case...it is not justice. It is state-sponsored murder.

[Aristus]

16. I'm 100% against the death penalty, but it's worth pointing out that this wouldn't have

happened if he just behaved himself back in 1986. When I think of the effort that goes into committing criminal acts, I just think: "Wouldn't it have been easier simply to have NOT done it?"

[galaxy21]

42. I think that applies to the Caylee Anthony case

Couldn't her mother have just given her away if she didn't want her? Why bother with an eloborate murder plot to rid yourself of the child? Its not hard to get a kid adopted these days.

[UndertheOcean]

17. He should have been executed 20 years ago.

[Owl]

21. Yep.

[thraxis]

53. That's one thing that is truly inhumane -

causing someone to have to wait for the moment for that length of time and that should be unacceptible.

[saigon68]

20. WoW lots of love and forgiveness on this thread

[depakid]

22. It's like a pack mentality

each poster trying to trump the other in their outrage, cruelty or dehumanization.

Says a lot about their character.

[spotbird]

27. It is possible that

many posters aren't progressive. If they were, I'd give up hope.

[ManiacJoe]

24. See post #12.

If one wants forgiveness, he first needs to be sorry.

[Patchuli]

25. I don't like the death penalty

I also don't like the death penalty this murderer gave two innocent young girls. Where's the love for them? The guy was a drain on society.

[MadMaddie]

26. I had a highschool friend murdered in TX in 89

She was an amazingly brilliant woman who just like these two young women would have given a lot to the world. Instead all 3 died at the hands of assholes who deserve no sympathy. I believe that there are many people out there that could have committed crimes but they chose not to, Cooley and his friend made the choice.

The death penalty is not necessarily the solution but make no mistake they do not deserve any sympathy especially when they are unrepentent for the crimes that they have committed.

The guy that killed my friend was out on parole for good behavior, you see the prisons in Tx were overcrowded so they just let criminals out for good behavior.

I think we should go back to hard labor from sun up to sun down and they can think about their crimes every day!

[Withywindle]

31. I don't have the moral authority to forgive him.

You don't either. Only his victims do, and guess what, they can't. They're dead.

[mitchum]

33. An excellent response

I completely agree with you

[Withywindle]

55. Thanks!

Funny thing is, I'm even opposed to the death penalty in general because of how it's usually practiced: racist, classist, very open to corruption and abuse. There've been enough Death Row inmates totally exonerated of the crimes they were accused of in my state(IL) that the horror of the possibility of killing an innocent person is enough to make me think we shouldn't take that risk.

But that said, if there's damn good evidence (as it appears there was in this case), I'm all in favor of putting truly rabid animals down. I'm staunchly opposed to my tax dollars being spent to feed and house a murderer and torturer (because rape IS a form of torture, one of the worst--if I don't want it done at Gitmo, I sure as hell don't want it done here either) when there are so many poor and homeless people WHO'VE NEVER HURT ANYONE who deserve those baloney sandwiches and roof over their head far more.

Newsflash: getting through decades of life **without** raping and killing someone is not difficult. I have no pity for anyone who fails to meet that most minimal of standards for the species.

[tburnsten]

56. Summed up my feelings on it nicely

I probably come across more angry than you did though. Hopefully the message doesn't get lost in it.

[Bill McBlueState]

34. Nobody has the moral authority to order anyone's execution, either

but that didn't stop the courts from doing it.

[Freddie Stubbs]

39. The People elected representatives who made laws which gave that authority

The could elect other representatives who can take that power away, if they so chose.

[Bill McBlueState]

40. legal authority may be different from moral authority

But what you say is true.

[slackmaster]

38. There is nothing anyone on this thread can do about it, or could have done to prevent the execution

Pardon some of us for finding a little entertainment value in this dark, sad story.

[tburnsten]

49. You don't get forgiveness when you never repent

The man never cared about what he did, he never once expressed remorse, he attempted escapes, and committed about the worst crime possible. Why should he be eligible for "love and forgiveness", exactly?



Where's your love for the two innocent victims?

[Nye Bevan]

28. I *try* to be opposed to the death penalty

but scumbags like this make it very difficult.

Cooey drove the car to an isolated wooded area and the victims were forced to exit the car. Cooey raped McCreery while Dickens raped Offredo. Then, Cooey raped Offredo while Dickens raped McCreery. During this time, Cooey called out Dicken’s name ( “hey Clint, put on the Bad Company tape,” he said.), which infuriated him. Dickens grabbed a billy club which had been placed on the hood of the car and began hitting a tree.
It was at that point that the men decided the girls had to die.

Cooey grabbed Offredo in a choke hold, strangling her until she was unconscious. Once she was on the ground he tied her feet together with a red bandana. Dickens clubbed McCreery with the billy club when she attempted to escape. She eventually slumped to the ground. Cooey tied a shoestring around Offredo’s neck and Dickens tied another around McCreery’s. During this episode, both victims were beaten in the head with the billy club and McCreery was stabbed in the neck.

http://markgribben.com/?p=58

[Withywindle]

30. Well, he wasn't too fat to rape and murder two people, now was he? n/t

[MrSlayer]

32. Apparently, he was not too fat after all.

No loss to the world.

[Bill McBlueState]

35. The death penalty should be abolished everywhere

Opposition to the death penalty is meaningless if we're willing to make an exception every time we're especially offended by the details of a crime.

[slackmaster]

37. I agree completely

The DP is too much power in the hands of the judicial system. People are not perfect judges of fact, and have plastic memories. It is not possible to be 100% sure you have the right perpetrator.

[tburnsten]

50. I think in this case we are quite sure

we had the right perpetrator. Otherwise I agree, but this fellows execution came a little too late for my liking.

[slackmaster]

51. Maybe so, but the fact that innocent people HAVE been executed proves the system is imperfect

I must continue to oppose the DP.

[tburnsten]

57. of course it is imperfect

But in this characters' case, although expensive and drawn out, it was clearly applied to one of the right people. The other guy in my opinion should have gotten the death penalty as well, being legally a minor at seventeen is not enough of an excuse to me. At seventeen I think anyone who doesn't have severe mental health impairments knows how wrong it is to rape and murder two people.

[Suspicious]

45. Thank you. n/t

[tburnsten]

48. I'm sure the victims families feel fairly offended by the details as well

And I'm quite certain that the two girls who were murdered also took offense to it. When there is not a single doubt in the world about a convicts guilt, and the crime is as heinous as thi, the death penalty is absolutely fine by me. What else should we do, try to "rehabilitate" the poor convict? Maybe at some point later in life he could have felt remorse for his crimes, but what's the point? a cold-blooded murderer like that will never be safe to release, there will never be a reason to release him, so why shouldn't he just be put to death?

[Bill McBlueState]

52. Obviously my comment is not addressed to folks like you

I'm really speaking more to people who say they're opposed to the death penalty, but seem to make an exception for every other case. Not people like yourself who enthusiastically support the concept.

[tburnsten]

58. Thank you

Although I am not sure what is wrong with being generally against an action, with exceptions, such as the death penalty when there is not a chance in hell the accused is innocent. Such as Cooey. Or in the case of abortion for instance, I don't think anyone enthusiastically feels that it is good for anyone, and it definitely has a lifelong impact on the woman who has it, but that doesn't mean it is inappropriate all the time.

[robcon]

41. A well-regulated death penalty is fair.

As long as appeals and other processes offer enough controls, the death penalty is appropriate in some circumstances.

[tburnsten]

43. Goodbye, loser

Too bad there is no process to revive murder victims using their killers tissue, that would be true justice. Especially if the killer needed to have the tissue raped out of him, similiar to the way the two girls who were murdered were raped before being killed by him.




And there are still people here there and everywhere that say that gun ownership and responsible carrying is a bad thing. Hopefully a good samaritan with a carry license and the fortitude to save them will be there if they are ever attacked by an animal like Cooey.

[TankLV]

54. "I don't want her you can have her she's too fat for me..."

que the accordians and toobas...

great Polish ditty...

I'm still against the death penalty, aside from the idiot arguments in THIS case...