"As a result of his conviction for aggravated murder, the Ohio Supreme Court has scheduled the execution of Mr. Richard Cooey for October 14, 2008 at 10 a.m. Accordingly, I have completed my review of Mr. Cooey's request for executive clemency.

 

In making my determination, my staff and I have reviewed the record of the proceedings and the evidence presented in Mr. Cooey's case, the judicial decisions regarding Mr. Cooey's conviction, the Application for Executive Clemency filed by Mr. Cooey's attorneys and arguments presented for and against the clemency request, and other materials provided by counsel.  We have also reviewed letters received in the Governor's office regarding this matter and the unanimous recommendation against clemency forwarded to me by the Ohio Parole Board on September 2, 2008.

 

Based on this review, I have decided to deny Mr. Cooey's application for executive clemency."

 

Cooey has been on death row for the 1986 kidnap, rape and murders of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery after the University of Akron coeds left the restaurant where they were working and were driving to a club.

 

Cooey was a 19-year old Army private home on leave when he and a group of friends decided to throw concrete from a roadway onto passing cars. Offredo and McCreery were in a car disabled by the concrete, and after promising to help the two young women Cooey and co-defendant, 17-year old Clint Dickens, took the victims to a wooded area behind what is now Rolling Acres Mall and killed them. Cooey received the death penalty from a three-judge panel; Dickens avoided the death sentence because of his age but is serving a life sentence.

 

In his various appeals Cooey has argued it was Dickens who killed Offredo and McCreery, as well as arguing his overweight condition makes the application of lethal injection "cruel and unusual punishment" because it will be difficult to find a vein capable of carrying the lethal cocktail.

 

When Cooey made his first trip to the death house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in 2003; his appeals finally made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ordered a stay based on related cases. The Ohio Attorney Generals office attorneys handling the case now expect a similar appeal schedule up to next Tuesday's scheduled execution.