Wednesday, February 4, 2004
LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Michelle Crawford held the hands of her father and the fianc & eacute; of her sister -- the woman John Glenn Roe was put to death for murdering nearly 20 years ago.
When Warden James Haviland announced that Donette Crawford's killer was dead, her sister raised the hands of Don Crawford and Steven Steiner and softly said, "Yes."
The Crawfords and Steiner sat quietly, watching on a closed-circuit television hooked up to Roe's death-house cell as prison health workers inserted the shunts that would hold the needles injecting the chemicals that would kill him. It took the team 20 minutes to find veins that would hold the shunts, a process that normally takes about 10 minutes.
Roe, 41, was pronounced dead about 12 minutes after he arrived in the death chamber. He died much more peacefully than Crawford, who was abducted, robbed, strangled and shot in the head in 1984, her sister said.
"He should have went through what my sister went through," Michelle Crawford said.
His death at 10:24 a.m. for the 1984 shooting of Crawford, 20, was the 10th execution since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999 and the first since an inmate resisted guards before his execution Jan. 14.
Final statements
Roe, asked if he had any last words, again proclaimed his innocence and apologized for lies he said prosecutors told about him.
"God is my witness, and you're killing an innocent man today," he said.
Don Crawford, Donette's father, said Roe was a liar to the end, referring to Roe's final innocence claim. Donette's fianc & eacute;, Steve Steiner, also was a witness. Roe grabbed Crawford from her car on Columbus' west side, choked her, then shot and robbed her, court records show. She left a 9-month-old daughter.
One other Ohio execution was delayed because of a similar injection problem. In 1999, difficulty inserting a needle into Wilford Berry's right arm delayed Ohio's first execution since 1963 for more than 20 minutes.
The state's last execution Jan. 14 was the first time witnesses saw members of the execution team insert the needles. The decision by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to allow the process to be viewed settled a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in September.
At that execution, Lewis Williams struggled with guards and pleaded for his life until he died.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Roe's request to block his execution based on the argument that the use of a muscle relaxant might not render him unconscious before a heart-stopping drug was injected, making the execution cruel. Williams made the same argument before his execution.
Some states won't let such a mixture be used to put down animals because of concerns about unnecessary pain by the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Roe's lead attorney, assistant public defender Ruth Tkacz, said Roe clearly suffered during his execution. His breathing became irregular before his body lay still.
"Although it may appear he's going to sleep, it is cruel and unusual punishment," said Tkacz, who witnessed the execution, along with an investigator from her office and Roe's spiritual adviser.
Roe's background
Roe admitted a life of crime, which first landed him in jail at age 16. He spent only 535 days of his adult life outside of jail.
He was born two months after John Glenn's history-making 1962 orbit of the Earth and was named for the astronaut.
Roe had said he was robbing a video-game store on the other side of town at the time of Crawford's abduction.
He was arrested on unrelated charges a month after Crawford's slaying and told police where her body could be found. He contended he knew where it was only because he had seen it while looking for cement blocks, and he told police hoping to reach a deal to keep out of prison.
Hours before his execution, Roe became "cranky" with guards and was emotional with family members who visited, prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said.