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Week 71 Ethics Headlines
Killer executed the hard way
Condemned man sits up and tells executioners, 'It's not working'
CNN.com
May 2, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) -- A double murderer was put to death in Ohio
Tuesday but not until after one of his veins collapsed, causing the
condemned man to sit up and tell his executioners, "It's not working,"
officials said.
The Ohio Department of Corrections said Joseph Clark, 57, was
pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. ET following an injection of lethal
chemicals at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.
Spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the execution was delayed about 90 minutes
because technicians had trouble initially finding a site in Clark's arm
for the intravenous line carrying the chemicals.
Then shortly after the poisons were supposed to have been pumping into
his body, she said, he sat up saying, "It's not working. It's not
working."
Officials determined that a vein had collapsed. Curtains were closed to
block witnesses' view until technicians found a vein in his other arm.
They were then parted to reveal him dying, witnesses said.
Ohio has used lethal injection repeatedly without similar problems, but
this method of execution, used in all but one of the 38 states that
impose capital punishment, is under legal attack.
The U.S. Supreme Court has a challenge before it from Florida claiming
that it causes undue pain, while the matter is also before a court in
California.
The method involves three separate drugs: the first renders the victim
unconscious, the second stops all muscle movement except the heart and
the third stops the heart, causing death.
Clark was given a meal of his request Monday, consisting of shrimp,
steak, chicken wings, fries, rolls with butter, cherry pie and a soft
drink.
Just before the execution process started the first time Clark made a
final statement apologizing to his victims' families and saying "Today
my life is being taken because of drugs. If you live by the sword you
die by the sword."
On January 13, 1984, Clark shot Marine reservist and father of two
David Manning and stole $65 from the gas station where Manning was
working.
The murder came during an eight-day crime spree in which Clark also
murdered another man, student Donald Harris, and wounded a third man
during an attempted robbery.
Harris was filling in for a friend at a convenience store when Clark
entered and demanded the contents of the store's safe. Harris said he
did not know the safe's combination, and was shot in the back of the
head.
Clark later attempted to rob a man at an automated teller machine, the
two struggled, and the victim was wounded twice. A witness saw the
attack and noted the license plate number on Clark's car.
After he was arrested, Clark tried to hang himself in his jail cell,
and confessed to the murders while recovering in a hospital. He was
sentenced to death for Manning's murder.
Clark said he robbed to support a drug habit.
"Neither the parole board nor I are persuaded by Mr. Clark's attempt to
explain away Mr. Manning's murder," Gov. Robert Taft said in refusing
clemency last week.
Taft said Clark's "well established prior criminal conduct, both as a
juvenile and as an adult, signifies a propensity for violent behavior."
Clark was the 21st person to be executed in Ohio since the state
resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1999, and the 1,021st inmate
executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed in 1976.
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Week 71 Ethics Headlines