Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the case and will issue his clemency decision in coming weeks.

By Marc Kovac | September 11, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN — An Ohio man sentenced to die next month for the grisly rape and murder of two college students more than 20 years ago said he did not kill the women.

Richard Wade Cooey II blasted prosecutors for investigating allegations he murdered another man (a misunderstanding stemming from something he said five years ago while awaiting execution), railed against lethal injection and state-sponsored capital punishment and countered suggestions he’s seeking a delay based solely on his weight.

“I did not beat these girls,” he said. “Yeah, I’m supposed to be in prison for what I did. I’m not denying that. I didn’t do the beatings in this case, and it can be proven scientifically, not just from what I’m saying. ... It can be proven.”

Cooey, scheduled for execution Oct. 14, spoke to a representative of the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association Tuesday during an interview at the Ohio State Penitentiary, the maximum-security prison in Youngstown. The stocky inmate (about 5 feet 7 inches tall and about 270 pounds) wore dark green prison-issue clothing and sat handcuffed behind a glass partition in a divided interview room.

In September 1986, Cooey, now 41, and two accomplices threw a chunk of concrete over the side of an interstate 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 in 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. Dickens was 17 at the time and tried as a juvenile; he was sentenced to life in prison.

Cooey has argued he received inadequate and incompetent legal counsel throughout his case, with multiple attorneys who failed to challenge evidence, question filings or fight to have new evidence introduced. He estimated he’s had 14 or more lawyers representing him at different times.

“There isn’t a competent capital litigation attorney in Ohio,” he said. “Not one.”

Cooey also continued to deny hitting either of the women and said evidence collected in the case (namely a shoestring tied around a club and blood taken from a passenger-side door of the car involved) would exonerate his involvement in the bludgeoning.

“I admit to what I did in this case, you know what I mean?” he said. “I wanted to go in and plead guilty to the stuff that I did in my case. The co-defendant in my case pled no-contest and was a juvenile at the time... . I’m the only one that could get the death penalty,” he said. “I couldn’t put [my co-defendent] out there. ... I couldn’t get him to testify, I couldn’t use his statements. ...”

Cooey was nearly executed about five years ago but was granted a last-minute stay.

During a clemency hearing last month, the prosecutor and representatives from the attorney general’s office and victims’ families argued Cooey has had ample legal proceedings and hearings, the legal process had run its course properly, and it was time for the death sentence to be carried out.

In a statement he read during the hearing, Robert McCreery Jr. told board members, “Every day that goes by is an insult to my sister’s memory and a stain on the reputation of the court system that he uses at will. Please grant our family and the people of this community some peace even in its smallest measure by honoring Cooey’s death penalty sentence.”

Parole board members agreed, writing: “Twenty-two years of exhaustive judicial scrutiny at both the state and federal level has failed to sustain many of the claims, including ineffective counsel, raised by Mr. Cooey in support of clemency. … 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.”

Gov. Ted Strickland is reviewing the recommendation and other information about the case and will issue his clemency decision in coming weeks.

Cooey has filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking to halt the execution based on his weight, sparse veins and migraine medication he takes. He said he understands the filing has become known as the “fat man lawsuit,” but he said weight isn’t the issue, and obesity isn’t the focus.

“It has to do with, the vein that they didn’t have access ...,” he said. “When I was down there in 2003, they only found one vein that was viable. ... They only found one vein, in my hand. ... I didn’t want them down there poking and prodding on me like they did them guys, just like when I was down there before.

“Also with regard to the medication I’m on [for migraines] that will counteract the first drug, and just like it did with the other guys, like I was trying to talk about before. The previous executions, they don’t put all the drugs in you.”

Cooey cited timelines from past executions that detail how lethal drugs were administered. He said the injection times are inconsistent and prove those sentenced to die aren’t receiving full doses or units were injected improperly.

“I see numerous botched executions in Ohio,” he said.

Cooey said he supports the victims’ families’ stance on his execution.

“If I was them, I’d be saying that I believe in the same thing,” he said. “If I was them, I would want everyone involved in this... if somebody witnessed it, I would want them dead. ... And I would never speak against the family on anything they say or do. ... They have that right.”

But Cooey added he does not support the death penalty.

“I’m not pro capital punishment for the state,” he said. “Like I said, I believe in an eye for an eye when it comes for the family. ... [But] I would never be a proponent of it, because, like I said, it’s financially, racially and politically motivated, without a doubt. I mean you’re always going to have the rich ... have you ever seen a millionaire end up on death row all alone? Have you ever seen anybody that could afford a good lawyer ... end up on death row? Never.”

mkovac@dixcom.com