Richard Cooey Executed

I guess he was wrong when he said he would be executed in pain.

Good riddance murderer.

Richard Cooey was executed as scheduled at 10 a.m. ET, the Ohio Department of Corrections told CNN.

Cooey had exhausted his legal appeals and Gov. Ted Strickland earlier denied the 41-year-old prisoner's clemency petition. Cooey murdered two college students in 1986.

The justices turned down a stay of execution, and the opportunity to address the larger constitutional claims over when a convicted person is medically unfit for capital punishment. The court was also asked to review Ohio's lethal injection procedures, and whether they were cruel and unusual punishment.

His lawyers have argued that the inmate-- at 5-foot-7 and 267 pounds -- is "morbidly obese," and has gained about 70 pounds since his incarceration at age 19. Prison food and confinement in his cell for 23 hours a day, limiting his opportunities for exercise, contributed to his weight problem, his legal team asserted in recent court filings.

Cooey also contends regular medication he takes for migraines will weaken the effectiveness of an anesthetic used in the a three-drug cocktail administered during execution. He says his veins are weakened because of his health issues, and the lethal drugs would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.   Source

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