Too fat to die? We’re not buying it

Too fat to die? We’re not buying it

If the state of Ohio did not feed Richard Wade Cooey III, doubtless his lawyers would be arguing that he was being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.

As it is, Cooey has been fed so well that he is morbidly obese, which allowed his lawyers to argue that executing him would be cruel and unusual punishment. He is so fat that his executioners will have difficulty finding a vein in which to insert the needle by which the lethal drugs would be administered.

First response

If the state of Ohio hasn’t responded to Cooey’s plight by now, it should. Put him on a strict regimen of low fat foots and moderate exercise. There was an intriguing sentence in a recent Columbus Dispatch story reporting Cooey’s latest attempt to avoid the execution he earned more than 20 years ago. It said that Cooey, whose reported weight on May 19 was 275 pounds, has gained weight in the last two months.

How does that happen? Prison officials presumably have control over everything Cooey eats. The story didn’t say how much he has gained, but he shouldn’t have gained a pound. He was sentenced to be executed, not sentenced to eat himself to death.

Cooey, 41, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. on Oct. 14. That is the date that justice should be served. He was sentenced to death for the murdering Dawn Marie McCreery, 20, and Wendy Jo Offredo, 21, on Sept. 1, 1986. Cooey and an accomplice, Clint Dickens, abducted and raped the Akron-area college women before choking and bludgeoning them to death. Dickens, a juvenile at the time, was sentenced to life in prison.

For two decades, during which Cooey put those 275 pounds on his 5 feet 7 inch body he has used various legal appeals to avoid execution, including claims of ineffective counsel. Five years ago he was within 12 hours of execution when a federal judge intervened.

Demands of justice

The families of the victims of such brutal murderers as Cooey deserve finality after a jury has rendered its verdict and a judge has passed sentence. Society demands that justice be administered impartially and efficiently.

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is required to do everything humanly possible to administer the three drugs that are part of the execution process in a humane manner. They should be preparing to do whatever is necessary in the case of Cooey, starting with putting him on a diet. In fact, the state had better begin closely monitoring the diets of all the men on death row, lest there be an epidemic of “morbid obesity.”