Richard Cooey
Richard Cooey was executed by lethal injection on October 14, 2008, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. His lawyers argued that his weight, which they said rose about 75 pounds on death row and which they linked to prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement, would make suitable veins hard to find, and that the state's three-drug protocol could cause a painful death. The U.S. Supreme Court and the Ohio courts rejected his appeals, and the Ohio Parole Board and Governor Ted Strickland declined to grant clemency. His relatives had visited him the previous month but did not come to the execution, and he spent the night before quietly pacing his cell and meeting with an attorney and a spiritual adviser.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state. Richard Cooey's lawyers argued that his obesity could make it hard for staff to find a vein and that the state's three-drug protocol could cause a painful death.
Reported by: State of Ohio (the agency that held him); U.S. Supreme Court (court).