Vrabel's execution provides just a measure of justice

Looking at the rogue's gallery of Mahoning Valley murderers of men, women and children that appeared in yesterday's Vindicator along side the story of Stephen Vrabel's execution, it might be argued that he should not have been first in line for a lethal injection.
Others have killed more viciously, perhaps with more premeditation. But that does not diminish the fact that justice was done yesterday when Vrabel was strapped to a gurney and drugs were pumped into his veins, until he was dead.
The only injustice, in Vrabel's case and that of dozens of others on death row, is that justice is delayed for so long.
Stephen Vrabel killed his girlfriend, Susan Clemente, 29, and their daughter, Lisa Clemente, 3, on March 3, 1989. It is remarkable that 15 years later, his execution took place only because he decided to abort the appeal process. Danny Lee Hill of Warren has been on death row for more than 18 years for his brutal rape and murder of a 12-year-old boy, Raymond Fife.
The state of Ohio has a death penalty by law. It is a penalty that other citizens and, especially, the families of victims, should be able to rely upon to exact justice.
While Vrabel eventually facilitated justice by dropping his appeals, he deserves no special credit. His crimes outweigh any consideration.
Vrabel not only killed his girlfriend and their child, shooting them in the head. He abused their bodies, first by pouring chemicals on them to cover the smell of decay, then by putting them in a refrigerator.
But more, he abused their loved ones, even in statements made in his final interview with a pool reporter assigned to talk with him and even up to his final words, a weak, generic apology to "anyone I may have wronged."
Vrabel had it in his power to help Susan Clemente's family understand, just a little bit, why they suffered the loss they did. He could have tried, at least, to put the murders in context. He could have tried to explain the unexplainable. He could have tried to console a family that suffered in inconsolable loss.
He didn't.
Vrabel's death row interview ended with this exchange:
Q: This will be the last opportunity for me to ask, and again I've asked the question before, but is there a reason why your wife and daughter died?
V: I can't comment on that.
With that final contempt shown for the family from whom he took a young women and a child -- people who were daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece -- Vrabel surrendered any chance for sympathy or understanding.
He was on the day he died the same person that he was on the day he killed -- a man who cared more about himself than any other human being.
The best that can be said about him in death is that his passing may give the family an opportunity to enter a new and final stage of grieving for their loss.