1989 SLAYINGS Family argues against clemency

The killer is in good spirits, his lawyer said.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDCATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- The family of Susan and Lisa Clemente, a mother and daughter fatally shot in their Struthers home in 1989, made an impassioned plea Friday that their convicted killer, Stephen A. Vrabel, be put to death as scheduled July 14.
"We miss Susie's smile and her laugh. We miss her and Lisa," an emotional Rita Clemente Sakara, Susan's aunt, told the Ohio Parole Board.
"Lisa would be a teenager now, going to dances, proms and graduating," Sakara said, her voice sometimes strained. "Steve Vrabel shot and killed them both, and we will never see them again."
The parole board held a clemency hearing for Vrabel, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Vrabel, 46, was convicted in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court of two counts of aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of Susan Clemente, 29, and their daughter, Lisa, 3. A jury sentenced Vrabel to death.
Board chairman Gary Croft said the eight-member board expects to deliver a recommendation to Gov. Bob Taft on Friday on whether he should commute Vrabel's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Family's statements
Susan and Lisa Clemente's relatives say they believe the decision on clemency should be obvious.
"Twelve men and women found him guilty and gave him the death penalty," said Sakara, who was joined at the approximately 11/2-hour clemency hearing by several family members and supporters.
"Susie and Lisa are in a better place, we all know that, but it should not have been Steve Vrabel's decision to put them there," Sakara said. "That is why he deserves no clemency."
"Steve Vrabel knew what he was doing that night, and now he should die for it," said Linda Aey, Susan Clemente's sister.
Vrabel, who's being held on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, wants to proceed with the execution, his lawyer, John Juhasz of Youngstown, told the board. Juhasz said Vrabel has exhausted his state appeals and has also waived all federal appeals of his death sentence.
"He's asked me to say that he didn't ask for clemency and that he does not want clemency," Juhasz said of Vrabel.
Turns in the case
Last July, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to uphold Vrabel's conviction and death sentence after Vrabel's lawyers had sought a new trial, claiming that Vrabel was mentally incompetent during his 1995 trial.
Then in September, Vrabel's death sentence was stayed by the high court pending an evaluation of Vrabel's mental competency.
But Vrabel's date with death was rescheduled for July 14 after Mahoning Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum found Vrabel to be mentally competent to waive all appeals.
Juhasz, Vrabel's lawyer, said he planned to meet with Vrabel after the parole board makes its recommendation to the governor on clemency.
The last time Juhasz spoke with Vrabel on the telephone about a month ago, Vrabel seemed in good spirits.
"He was fine," Juhasz recalled.
In a signed confession to police detectives, Vrabel admitted shooting Susan and Lisa Clemente on March 3, 1989, with a .22-caliber handgun and then placing their bodies in the refrigerator and freezer, respectively, of their Struthers apartment.
Clemente's brother-in-law discovered the bodies when he went to the home to check on Clemente, court records say. Vrabel was convicted of the felony aggravated murder counts in October 1995.