Condemned man tells executioners, 'It's not working'

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Condemned man tells executioners, 'It's not working'

Postby nomo » Tue May 02, 2006 5:25 pm

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/02/lethal.injection.reut/index.html">www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/0...index.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Killer executed the hard way<br><br>Condemned man sits up and tells executioners, 'It's not working'<br><br>COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) -- A double murderer was put to death in<br>Ohio Tuesday but not until after one of his veins collapsed, causing<br>the condemned man to sit up and tell his executioners, "It's not<br>working," officials said.<br><br>The Ohio Department of Corrections said Joseph Clark, 57, was<br>pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. ET following an injection of lethal<br>chemicals at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.<br><br>Spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the execution was delayed about 90<br>minutes because technicians had trouble initially finding a site in<br>Clark's arm for the intravenous line carrying the chemicals.<br><br>Then shortly after the poisons were supposed to have been pumping<br>into his body, she said, he sat up saying, "It's not working. It's<br>not working."<br><br>Officials determined that a vein had collapsed. Curtains were closed<br>to block witnesses' view until technicians found a vein in his other<br>arm. They were then parted to reveal him dying, witnesses said.<br><br>Ohio has used lethal injection repeatedly without similar problems,<br>but this method of execution, used in all but one of the 38 states<br>that impose capital punishment, is under legal attack.<br><br>The U.S. Supreme Court has a challenge before it from Florida<br>claiming that it causes undue pain, while the matter is also before a<br>court in California.<br><br>The method involves three separate drugs: the first renders the<br>victim unconscious, the second stops all muscle movement except the<br>heart and the third stops the heart, causing death.<br><br>Clark was given a meal of his request Monday, consisting of shrimp,<br>steak, chicken wings, fries, rolls with butter, cherry pie and a soft<br>drink.<br><br>Just before the execution process started the first time Clark made a<br>final statement apologizing to his victims' families and saying<br>"Today my life is being taken because of drugs. If you live by the<br>sword you die by the sword."<br><br>On January 13, 1984, Clark shot Marine reservist and father of two<br>David Manning and stole $65 from the gas station where Manning was<br>working.<br><br>The murder came during an eight-day crime spree in which Clark also<br>murdered another man, student Donald Harris, and wounded a third man<br>during an attempted robbery.<br><br>Harris was filling in for a friend at a convenience store when Clark<br>entered and demanded the contents of the store's safe. Harris said he<br>did not know the safe's combination, and was shot in the back of the<br>head.<br><br>Clark later attempted to rob a man at an automated teller machine,<br>the two struggled, and the victim was wounded twice. A witness saw<br>the attack and noted the license plate number on Clark's car.<br><br>After he was arrested, Clark tried to hang himself in his jail cell,<br>and confessed to the murders while recovering in a hospital. He was<br>sentenced to death for Manning's murder.<br><br>Clark said he robbed to support a drug habit.<br><br>"Neither the parole board nor I are persuaded by Mr. Clark's attempt<br>to explain away Mr. Manning's murder," Gov. Robert Taft said in<br>refusing clemency last week.<br><br>Taft said Clark's "well established prior criminal conduct, both as a<br>juvenile and as an adult, signifies a propensity for violent behavior."<br><br>Clark was the 21st person to be executed in Ohio since the state<br>resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1999, and the 1,021st<br>inmate executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed<br>in 1976. <p></p><i></i>
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