Parole board rejects killer’s too-fat-to-die argument

By Marc Kovac

Cooey argues that his execution would prove cruel and unusual punishment due to his morbid obesity.

COLUMBUS — The state parole board has recommended against mercy for Richard Wade Cooey II, the death row inmate who had argued that he was too fat to be executed next month.

The board forwarded its clemency position to Gov. Ted Strickland Tuesday; Cooey was sentenced to death for the brutal rape and murder of two University of Akron students in the mid-1980s.

“Twenty-two years of exhaustive judicial scrutiny at both the state and federal level have failed to sustain many of the claims, including ineffective counsel, raised by Mr. Cooey in support of clemency,” according to the decision, supported and signed by all seven members of the parole board.

“Despite findings by the Ohio Supreme Court that aggravating factors were weighed inappropriately at the penalty phase of the trial, no court has found the errors sufficient to impact the appropriateness of the penalty decision.”

It added, “Nothing in our independent inquiry into the appropriateness of clemency for Richard Wade Cooey suggests that any manifest injustice has occurred or that mitigating factors known today outweigh the aggravating circumstances of this offense. A sufficient, justifiable basis for mercy cannot be found.”

The governor will have his legal staff review the recommendation and other details of the case before issuing his decision on clemency, said spokesman Keith Dailey.

Cooey, 41, and two accomplices threw a chunk of concrete over the side of an Interstate 77 overpass into a passing car. He and another man, Clint Dickens, then played good Samaritan to the victims, 21-year-old Wendy Jo Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery, before kidnapping them, raping and murdering the two in an isolated area near Norton.

Cooey was convicted on multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape, aggravated robbery and felonious assault. He was admitted to Death Row in December 1986.

Cooey was nearly executed about five years ago but was granted a last-minute stay. Cooey is scheduled to be executed Oct. 14 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Still pending is a lawsuit filed in federal court in which Cooey’s legal counsel argues that his execution would prove cruel and unusual punishment due to his morbid obesity (at 5-foot-7 and 270 pounds), sparse veins and migraine medication he currently takes that could affect the lethal injection process.

During a clemency hearing late last month, Cooey’s legal counsel argued that the inmate had received inadequate, ineffective and blunder-filled legal representation during the trial and subsequent appeals process. They described him as evolving from a 19-year-old substance abuser who has grown up in prison, developed a moral compass and made strides toward self-education.

But Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, assistant Attorney General Laurence Snyder and family members argued that Cooey had had ample legal proceedings and hearings and the death sentence should be carried out.

mkovac@dixcom.com