OxfordPress.com

LUCASVILLE — A black hearse was parked in a courtyard just outside the death house Tuesday morning, Oct. 14. A silver-haired driver was at the wheel, waiting for the healthy man inside the house to be put to death and brought out on a gurney.

This macabre scenario has become almost routine at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

Richard Cooey's execution was much like the 26 others that have preceded it since 1999, when Ohio resumed executions after a 36-year hiatus. It's a chillingly calculated process, one that is typically devoid of theatrics.

For Dana Cole of Akron, who described himself as Cooey's attorney and friend, capital punishment is a cold-blooded exercise that brings society down to the level of the condemned murderer. After the execution, Cole said Cooey's killing was premeditated by the state for 22 years, since he was convicted of the gruesome double murder of University of Akron sorority sisters Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery.

Cole said the man who was executed Tuesday "bore no resemblance" to the 19-year-old soldier who committed the crimes in 1986.

For McCreery's family, it was disappointing that Cooey never expressed remorse or admitted responsibility for the murders, which he blamed on a co-defendant. Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who spoke for the family, said they were frustrated that it took 22 years of appeals before justice was done.

Ohio's execution process mirrors that of many states. Intravenous shunts are inserted in each arm.

The inmate is led into the execution chamber, where he lies on a table that can accommodate his outstretched arms. Plastic tubing is attached to the shunts.

The warden gives the inmate a chance to make a final statement. Then, at a signal from the warden, chemicals begin flowing through the tubing and into the inmate's veins. The first drug puts him into a sleep state, the second one stops his breathing and the third stops his heart. There is very little physical reaction to the drugs — the inmate's chest may heave a few times. As death occurs, the face can take on a purplish cast. At one point in Cooey's execution, Warden Phillip Kerns approached him and appeared to touch him, perhaps to be certain Cooey was unconscious as the process continued.

There are six newspaper, television and radio reporters chosen to bear witness to the state's ultimate punishment. Three witnesses each can be selected by the killer and by the victim's family.

In Cooey's case, Offredo's family decided not to witness, and gave their seats to McCreery's family, which had six members present.

None of Cooey's family visited him at Lucasville or witnessed his execution.

The hearse was to take his body to a local mortuary, where he would be cremated at state expense. Dana Cole was to be given Cooey's ashes, prisons spokeswoman Andrea Carson said.