Yeah! 1000 executions!

[Ed Anger]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h18cDX6PuFXpdEc3JIHpQRFMapvAD99IVMJG0

And it went to a guy that deserved it too.

Ohio spree killer's execution marks 1,000th in US

By MATT LEINGANG (AP) – 23 minutes ago

LUCASVILLE, Ohio — A man who went on a 1992 Christmas holiday killing spree that left six people dead, including an 18-year-old mother gunned down at a pay phone, was executed Tuesday, the state's second lethal injection in two weeks and the 1,000th execution in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Marvallous Keene, 36, who was convicted in five of the murders, chose not to file a late appeal over his death sentence.

He died by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville — seven days after Ohio's last execution. It was the fastest turnaround since the state executed two inmates in six days in 2004.

The Ohio Supreme Court, in denying a request last month to delay Keene's execution, said it would schedule future executions at last three weeks apart so that public defenders will have more time to prepare clemency cases for inmates who wish to pursue it.

Ohio has one execution scheduled per month through February 2010.

Keene and three accomplices went on a three-day murder and robbery rampage in Dayton that began on Christmas Eve 1992.

Victims included Sarah Abraham, 38, a convenience store clerk shot in the head after handing over $30 from a cash register, and Marvin Washington and Wendy Cottrill, two teenage acquaintances who Keene feared would tell police about his crimes.

Cottrill's mother, Donna Cottrill, stood when Keene entered the death chamber, but he didn't acknowledge her or look directly at anyone as he lay on the gurney.

When the prison warden asked Keene if he wanted to make a final statement, Keene replied, "No, I have no words."

He stared at the ceiling, then closed his eyes. His chest slightly heaved as the drugs were administered.

Seven members of the victims' families who witnessed the execution declined to speak to reporters afterward, as did Keene's attorneys.

According to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., Keene's was the 1,000th execution by lethal injection since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The European Union presidency, currently held by Sweden, released a statement noting the number and calling on the U.S. to halt executions, pending the abolition of the death penalty.

"The European Union is opposed to the use of capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances," the statement said. "We believe that the abolition of the death penalty is essential to protect human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights."

Asked for a response to the EU statement, Internet crank Ed Anger grunted, scratched his balls and called Euros, "Pussies."

The death penalty is abolished in the European Union, and the United Nations General Assembly has called upon all countries that use it to stop executions and end the practice.

Keene did not fight his execution. At a June 17 clemency hearing, he directed his attorneys not to present evidence on his behalf, saying he didn't want to cause additional pain to his family or to the victims' families.

Gov. Ted Strickland last week denied clemency for Keene, who didn't request it.

Defense attorneys have said Keene, who was 19 at the time of the slayings, was despondent over the death of his brother, who was shot and killed a year earlier. At his trial, Keene also told a three-judge panel that a falling out with his father contributed to his troubled emotional state.

Prosecutors described Keene as the ringleader of a group that called itself the Downtown Posse. The killings began with 34-year-old Joseph Wilkerson.

Keene and his accomplices arrived at Wilkerson's home under the pretext of wanting to participate in an orgy, prosecutors said. They tied Wilkerson to his bed and ransacked the house, and when Keene found a .32-caliber handgun in the garage, he returned to the bedroom and shot Wilkerson twice.

Later Christmas Eve, Keene and accomplice DeMarcus Smith approached 18-year-old Danita Gullette at a pay phone, took her jacket and shoes and fatally shot the woman, prosecutors said. Gullette was the mother of a 2-year-old girl.

Washington, 18, and Cottrill, 16, were acquaintances who sometimes stayed at Keene's apartment and observed Keene returning with stolen items, prosecutors said. They were shot and killed behind a gravel pit.

Keene's accomplices are serving life sentences.

Ohio has put 31 men to death since it reinstated the death penalty in 1999. John Fautenberry, 45, a former Oregon truck driver who went on a multistate killing spree in the early 1990s, was executed last week.

[Barrister]

[Ed Anger]

Yes, I'm aware of the typo. My brain hurts.

[derspiess]

I'm putting out the flag & setting off fireworks tonight

IIRC, the last person who was executed in West Virginia had actually pled guilty.  My uncle's father in law was somehow involved with the case.

[Grey Fox]

Pussies.

[Caliga]

Marvallous Keene

[Barrister]

I'm putting out the flag & setting off fireworks tonight

IIRC, the last person who was executed in West Virginia had actually pled guilty.  My uncle's father in law was somehow involved with the case.

How does that work? 

If I'm an accused, and the state wants to kill me, I'm fighting it every step of the way.  What incentive is there to admit anything...

[DisturbedPervert]

If I'm an accused, and the state wants to kill me, I'm fighting it every step of the way.  What incentive is there to admit anything...

Maybe he wants to die

[DGuller]

I wish Europeans would keep their mouth shot, I always annoys me how they're yupping about the death penalty every time some scumbag is executed.  There are people who choose to declare war on society, and it's not at all obvious that society should be prevented from fighting back with full force.

[DGuller]

How does that work? 

If I'm an accused, and the state wants to kill me, I'm fighting it every step of the way.  What incentive is there to admit anything...

Maybe it wasn't a certain outcome.  Maybe the choice was between pleading not guilty and being executed for sure, and pleading guilty and hoping for some mercy.

[Caliga]

I'm normally opposed to the death penalty, but people named "Marvallous" deserve to die.  It's not your fault that your mom was a retarded dazzling urbanite BAP, but come on man, legally change your name so at least it's spelled right! 

[clandestino]

I wish Europeans would keep their mouth shot, I always annoys me how they're yupping about the death penalty every time some scumbag is executed.  There are people who choose to declare war on society, and it's not at all obvious that society should be prevented from fighting back with full force.

Well, we can see the US, the "defe

and in good companion with the likes of Ch

[Ed Anger]

So, did everyone find my surprise in the article?

[Capetan Mihali]

Thanks for everything, Gary.



Let's do it.

-- G.M. Gilmore, 1/17/77

[DGuller]

So, did everyone find my surprise in the article?

You mean that Ed Anger wasn't actually interviewed for this article?  Now that I think of it, that quote did seem a little out of place for such an article.