OHIO State executes inmate for killing guard

The condemned man stuffed his ears with toilet paper.
LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A man was executed today for killing a jail guard who was about to search his cell 20 years ago for a homemade knife.
William G. Zuern, 45, was pronounced dead by injection at 10:04 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. His attorney, Kate McGarry, had decided against taking the typical step of asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution.
Zuern refused to talk to the prison staff before his execution and stuffed his ears with toilet paper so he couldn't hear them, said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
At one point, Zuern removed the paper from his ears and asked a guard, "What time does all of this start?" Dean said.
When asked if he had any last words before execution, Zuern said, "Nope."
Appeals rejected
On Monday, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati rejected two appeals by Zuern. A three-judge panel lifted a stay of execution issued earlier in the day, then a majority of judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted not to allow the full court to consider Zuern's appeal.
Earlier Monday, U.S. District Judge Walter Rice in Dayton ordered the stay to allow the appeals court more time to consider whether Zuern's death sentence is fair.
McGarry had argued that Zuern's lawyers didn't present evidence that that could have helped him when he was sentenced.
Gov. Bob Taft on Monday denied clemency, saying Zuern never showed remorse for the stabbing and committed other crimes during his incarceration. Zuern would be the 12th inmate to die by injection since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.
Order overturned
On Friday, the appeals court overturned an order issued last month by Rice that the execution be delayed. Rice overturned Zuern's conviction in 2000, but the 6th Circuit reinstated it last July.
Zuern was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to death in the June 9, 1984, stabbing death of jail officer Phillip Pence.
Zuern, formerly of Cincinnati, also was serving a life prison term for his guilty plea to fatally shooting a Cincinnati man.
He had been awaiting trial on that slaying when Hamilton County jail officials received a tip that Zuern had a homemade knife in his cell at the Community Correctional Institution, a Civil War-era prison in Cincinnati known as "the Workhouse."
Zuern was notified that officers were coming to search the cell for the weapon, and when they arrived, he stabbed Pence in the chest with a dagger he had fashioned out of a metal bucket handle, officers said.
At a hearing before sentencing, Zuern's lawyers read a statement from him that said he refused to "beg and crawl" for the jury to spare his life. He said he realized that if he offered no defense, he could only be sentenced to death.
Refusing family
He declined to see his two sisters today before his execution, Dean said. No witnesses attended the execution for Zuern.
Pence's half sister and two deputies who worked with him, including one who witnessed the stabbing, watched the execution.
Zuern had a restless night and paced around his cell, Dean said. He ate four pancakes, cereal, milk, juice and coffee for breakfast and declined to take a shower.
He ate all of his final dinner Monday of mashed potatoes with gravy, lasagna, macaroni and cheese, corn, garlic bread and cherry cheese cake, which were prepared by the prison, Dean said.