DEATH CHAMBER Murderer Wickline executed

Wickline didn't appear despondent and was congenial, a prison official said.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- William D. Wickline met his death today, executed by Ohio for the 1980s slaying and dismembering of two central Ohioans.
Wickline, 52, was declared dead at 10:11 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near here after being executed by lethal injection, prison officials said.
Clad in a white shirt, blue pants and brown boots and strapped to a gurney in the death chamber at the maximum security prison about an hour and half south of Columbus, Wickline made a final statement shortly after 10 a.m.
& quot;May tomorrow see the courts shaped by more wisdom and less politics, & quot; Wickline said.
At one point, Wickline raised his head off the gurney and looked at his brothers, David and Robert Wickline, seated in the witness area and made what appeared to be a hand gesture, possibly a & quot;thumbs up & quot; sign.
Witnesses could see Wickline's mouth open and his throat moving until shortly before 10:09 a.m., when the curtain was closed on the window separating the witness area from the death chamber.
In the witness viewing area, some sobbing could be heard but it was mainly quiet.
Joining David and Robert Wickline on the condemned's side of the viewing area was Byron Vickery, an attorney.
On the victim's side was Nancy Fowler, the sister of Peggy Ann Lerch, one of Wickline's victims. Joining her were Keith Thatcher, suburban Columbus police officer who investigated Wickline, and Pat Sheeran from the Franklin County prosecutor's office.
Both the victim and inmate witnesses declined to comment after the execution.
What took place
Wickline spent some of his final morning visiting with his two brothers, said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Dean said Wickline awoke about 5:30 a.m. after going to bed only a few hours before at about 12:40 a.m. Wickline had coffee and cereal after he awoke, Dean said.
& quot;He's been a very congenial inmate, & quot; Dean said just hours before Wickline's execution, adding that he had not been despondent since his arrival at the SOCF about 9:46 a.m. Monday. Before that, Wickline had been housed on Ohio's Death Row, which is at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.
& quot;He's been praying and reading his Bible, & quot; Dean said of the final hour before Wickline was prepared for the execution.
According to court records, on Aug. 14, 1982, Wickline decapitated 28-year-old Christopher Lerch of suburban Columbus after a dispute over a $6,000 cocaine debt.
Wickline then strangled Lerch's wife, 25-year-old Peggy Ann, and dismembered both corpses and got rid of the body parts in trash bags placed in trash cans throughout the area, court records say.
No remains of the Lerchs were ever found, but Wickline was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder in Franklin County Common Pleas Court and sentenced to death.
Wickline's appeals had all run out, state prison officials said. Also, Republican Gov. Bob Taft had denied clemency in the case.
Wickline's execution is the 11th in Ohio since 1999. The 10th was John Glenn Roe on Feb. 3.
XEditor's note: Jeff Ortega was a press pool witness for the Wickline execution.