Ohio man tells executioners “It’s not working”

By Jim Leckrone

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – A double murderer was put to
death in Ohio on Tuesday but not until after one of his veins
had 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. EDT (1426 GMT) 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 U.S. 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 on 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.