Events Calendar
In This Section
Energy upgrades for Summit, Stark
Buehler's employee hopes to bag national title
Troubled bar torn down after court's final say
Toyota recalls 437,000 Priuses, hybrids globally
Brother now says former Akron doctor admitted poisoning wife
Akron, county health departments move toward merger
Most Read Stories
Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Complaints against officer keep coming
Woman rescued after falling through rotting floor in house
Police say couple had 50 stolen hubcaps
Strip club hosts 'Lap dances for Haiti'
Teen driver crashes into Bath Twp. home
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
State auditor cites Highland Athletic Booster Club
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
NBC Releases Olympics Announcer List
Akron Zips:
Zips favored on road against MAC West leader
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
New York Media Begins to Acknowledge Reality?
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Five local gridders to play in Big33
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Law, Love and Chocolate
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
OFCCP Report
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Convicted killer requests new sentencing hearing over lethal injection. Prosecutor calls it delay tactic
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Associated Press
Published on Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008
COLUMBUS: The killer of two University of Akron students said he can't be put to death by injection because he was sentenced to die by electric chair.
Richard Cooey, 41, who would be the first inmate executed in Ohio in more than a year, has requested a new sentencing hearing in Summit County under current execution law and a chance to present more evidence that he shouldn't be put to death.
The state outlawed the electric chair in 2001 and made lethal injection the sole means of execution in Ohio. The electric chair hasn't been used in the state since 1963.
''The journal entry in this matter has not been changed to reflect the change in the law as of 2001,'' the lawsuit says. ''The only court that matters has yet to issue an order sentencing the defendant to death by lethal injection.''
In the request filed Friday in Summit County Common Pleas Court, Cooey says he wasn't allowed to properly present evidence of a brutal childhood at his original sentencing in 1986.
Cooey suffered ''brutal, violent abuse'' at the hands of his alcoholic father, a story that Cooey's original attorneys failed to pull together at Cooey's sentencing hearing, attorney Eric Allen said Monday.
''It's just another thing that's been overlooked and not dealt with properly,'' Allen said.
One of Cooey's original lawyers previously told the Associated Press he believed he did everything he could at that hearing.
Cooey is scheduled to die Oct. 14 in the 1986 rapes and murders of University of Akron students Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery. Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh called the latest argument a delay tactic and says she'll fight it.
''The crimes he committed were so brutal that there is no mitigating evidence that can overcome that,'' Walsh said Monday.
Walsh said federal courts have repeatedly upheld Cooey's death sentence.
Two of the three Summit County judges on the panel that sentenced Cooey to die have died, and a third is on inactive status, according to the Ohio Supreme Court's attorney registration Web site.
Cooey's filing requests a hearing to determine which judges should replace any deceased judges.
Cooey has also sued in federal court arguing he has poor vein access, a problem made worse by his obesity. He also says a drug he takes for migraine headaches, Topomax, could interfere with the drugs used in the injection process.
The state says Cooey's arguments are a baseless rehash of arguments he made in a similar 2004 lawsuit.
Cooey has also sued in Franklin County Common Pleas Court arguing his execution would violate the state constitution because it does not provide a quick and painless death.
He has acknowledged participating in the crime that led to their deaths but denies killing the women. A co-defendant who was 17 at the time and barred from receiving the death penalty is serving a life sentence.
Cooey, 5-foot, 7 inches tall and weighing 267 pounds, has denied trying to purposely gain weight in prison.
COLUMBUS: The killer of two University of Akron students said he can't be put to death by injection because he was sentenced to die by electric chair.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
WADSWORTH, OH
Posted 04:04 AM, 09/23/2008
my daddy beat me with a hammer,but I was accepted into the U.S.military.I murdered 2 innocent young women,and traded my soul in the joint for food-food-and more food-(my x treated me badly,the dog ate my homework,i have headaches-on and on and on),,,'Get over it fat-boy-stand up and be a man for once in your life instead of the whining crybaby that you really are'-game is over in mid October...tick tock tick tock tick tock
Posted 06:52 AM, 09/23/2008
Why do you think you deserve a "quick & painless" death? Were the deaths of your victims quick & painless? You chose to participate in the brutal murders of two young women - no one forced you. Time to accept your fate and quit wasting the court's time and the taxpayers money!!!
Akron, Oh
Posted 07:36 AM, 09/23/2008
If he wants to die in accordance with his original sentence... then by all means ... hook that chair back up !!! How many more things will he come up with to delay the inevitable ? His victims didn't get to appeal!!! The state needs to put a stop to all his stupid appeals and be done with it.
Akron, OH
Posted 08:04 AM, 09/23/2008
Jes' when we think we've head it all, some lawyer introduces another stoopid plea.
Posted 08:25 AM, 09/23/2008
OMG do something w/him already. I'm tired of reading about him EVERYDAY. He just wants nothing but attention. We have people starving on the streets and he is getting fat in prison. What are they feeding him? Oct. 14 isn't going to come quit enough so we can stop hearing about him.
Copley, OH
Posted 08:33 AM, 09/23/2008
This "man" lacks courage and responsibility. He sounds like a typical liberal metrosexual male. Dude, you did it, man up and take your punishment.
Posted 11:06 AM, 09/23/2008
Metrosexual?? WTF!............
Posted 11:07 AM, 09/23/2008
I agree with everyone that posted comments above. Why is th ABJ still covering this story on this piece of flesh. Get rid of him already.
Brimfield, OH
Posted 12:55 PM, 09/23/2008
What a joke!! I was raised by abusive parents and I haven't murdered anyone. He should be taken out the same way he took out his victims. He sure didn't show those girls any mercy. He needs to quit making excuses and accept his fate.
Posted 01:42 PM, 09/23/2008
You don't need to find a vein with the chair, and it will hold fat boys too!
N Canton, oh
Posted 03:56 PM, 09/23/2008
but then we will hear his fat butt won't fit in the chair
Posted 04:54 PM, 09/23/2008
sounds like fat boy is getting scared oh poor baby to bad take it like a man you he didnt care how those girls felt now did he? hes wasting everyones time deal with it fat boy
Akron, Oh
Posted 05:10 PM, 09/23/2008
I knew him as a youth. He was evil then and still evil now. Burn the fat boy!
akron, OH
Posted 09:39 PM, 09/23/2008
this guys a cry babby he should get turned over to the familys of the two girls he killed
barberton, oh
Posted 10:09 PM, 09/23/2008
I say you take all food away from the fat little girl until time for his injection...I bet they have no problem finding a vein then...GET HIM OUT OF HERE!!!
