The Ohio Attorney General's office says in motions filed in federal court that the claims from Richard Cooey are baseless and Cooey has no likelihood of succeeding in his lawsuit. Cooey, 41, sued the state in August, arguing that he has poor vein access compounded by his obesity.

If put to death Oct. 14, Cooey would be the first inmate in Ohio executed in more than a year and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the basic injection protocol used by most states.

Cooey also argues that Topomax, a drug he takes for headaches, could interfere with the injection process.

The state says none of these arguments taken alone or together increases the risk that Cooey will suffer severe pain.

"Cooey failed to prove that the condition of his veins will lead to a substantial risk of severe pain, and he has failed to offer an alternative," Matthew Kanai, senior assistant attorney general, argued in a Thursday filing in U.S. District Court

The state also says Cooey is just dredging up arguments he attempted in a 2004 lawsuit over Ohio's injection process. The U.S. Supreme Court said in April that Cooey missed a deadline for properly filing that complaint.

In addition, the state said Cooey's obesity argument is without merit, since the full dosage of the first drug, sodium thiopental, will render him unconscious.

"It remains unclear what steps Cooey would ask the State to take in order to alleviate the problem," Kanai wrote.

"Indeed, short of forced-starvation of the inmate or forced-labor, the State is powerless to prevent Cooey from being morbidly obese."

Cooey was sentenced to die in 1986 for raping and murdering University of Akron students Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery. He has acknowledged participating in the crime that led to their deaths but denies killing the women. A co-defendant who was 17 at the time and barred from receiving the death penalty is serving a life sentence.

Cooey, 5-foot, 7 inches tall and weighing 267 pounds, has denied trying to purposely gain weight in prison.

"Vein access was an issue even when I was back in the service," Cooey told The Associated Press in an interview last week.

His August injection lawsuit argues that a nurse cited difficulties finding Cooey's veins in 2003, when Cooey spent several hours in the state death house and was almost executed before a federal judge granted a last-minute reprieve.

Cooey's lawyers say the state is trying to shift the blame for its "constitutionally deficient" execution process to Cooey.

The Ohio Public Defender's Office says Cooey is not responsible for the fact the state found he had poor veins five years ago, nor is he responsible for being restricted to eating prison food and junk food from the prison commissary and the fact he is denied proper exercise.

He's also not responsible for the medication the state chooses to give him for his headaches, said Greg Meyers, a senior assistant public defender.

"While it might grab headlines and make for the good butt of a joke, a fat man has the same right to a constitutional and lawful execution as does a thin man," Meyers wrote in a Thursday court filing.

Cooey filed a second injection lawsuit in state court Thursday, arguing his execution would violate the state constitution because it does not provide a quick and painless death.

The lawsuit filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court says the state should use a single, anesthetic drug instead of the three-drug combination.

---

On the Net:

Attorney General: http://www.ag.state.oh.us/

Ohio Death Row: http://www.drc.ohio.gov/Public/deathrow.htm

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Comments
posted at 9/21/2008 1:03:47 PM (2512)
 misstia said:

kill this pig!

posted at 9/21/2008 10:16:02 PM (2515)
 malisam said:

Doesn't the lawyer mean he is the big but of the joke bawaha. Also, since the fat man is worried about the weight thing and obviously has for some time, has he taken the responsibility to try and lose weight if he thinks he might be in pain. All I see is a man (albeit fat) not taking responsibility once again. Kill the bas*ard.

posted at 9/21/2008 10:19:28 PM (2516)
 malisam said:

BTW the people of Ohio have spoken. Put to death. The taxpayers have spoken. Put him to death. The family has spoken. Put him to death. The courts have spoken. Put him to death. The only two people who do not want him to die is his lawyer (who has to do it because that is his job) and Cooey. Put him to death.

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