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'Too fat to die' murderer is executed

by Paul Conneally | October 14, 2008 at 02:40 pm

805 views | 17 Recommendations | 4 comments

Another execution. Lethal injection. Ohio.

Richard Cooey a murderer and rapist who claimed he was too fat to be killed humanely by injection.

He was wrong.

still undigested
bear claw pastries
a lawn of red leaves

A double murderer who claimed he was too fat to be safely executed was put to death by lethal injection today.

Richard Cooey, 5ft 7ins and 19 stones, had tried to escape his sentence by claiming his obesity would cause difficulty in finding suitable veins for the shots.

Cooey ,41, who killed two Ohio university students in 1986, lost a final appeal earlier today to the US Supreme Court.

Cooey and a then-17-year-old accomplice were convicted of the murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery.

The men had been throwing concrete slabs off a bridge on to a main road and one of them struck Ms Offredo's car.

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Barbara McPherson

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:52 on October 14th, 2008

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff. It sounds like Ohio has similar laws to hang em high Texas.

duo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 22:12 on October 14th, 2008

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

How old was this man when he did this? It sounds to me more like a youthful mistake than premeditated murder. Throwing concrete off the expressway with a 17-year-old accomplice? This sounds like two kids who should get manslaughter, not the death penalty!

Thanks for the story. I did not know they killed the Fat Guy. I have been busy trying to let people know about Troy Davis, who was denied today the right to a new trial by the US Supreme Court. It has been a bad day for death penalty opponents - and death row inmates, like Mr. Cooey and Mr. Davis. Read my Troy Davis update article here:

http://my.nowpublic.com/culture/troy-davis-update-u-s-supreme-court-clears-way-execution

Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Please leave this post intact.

Paul Conneally

at 22:17 on October 14th, 2008

Hi Mary - I don't agree with execution.

It's what he did next that was horryfying and beyond a youthful mistake:

"Pretending to "rescue" the women, Cooey and Clinton Dickens took the victims to a remote field.

They were subjected to a three-and-a-half-hours of rape, torture, stabbing, and fatal bludgeoning. Cooey carved an "X" into the stomachs of both women."

duo

at 22:38 on October 14th, 2008

Sounds like this dude had serious mental health issues. I don't agree with executions either. But this man did not ever need to be free in society again. Anyone who could do such a thing as he did is as awful as the people who stuck the needle in his arm today.

Mary