Ohio executes man who killed his 3 sons

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A man who fatally shot his three sons while they slept in 1982, shortly after his wife filed for divorce, was executed today with his hand clenched in an obscene gesture.

Reginald Brooks of East Cleveland died at 2:04 p.m. after raising the middle finger of his left hand. His execution ended a nearly six-month break in the use of capital punishment in Ohio, which often trails only Texas in the number of annual inmate executions.

State and federal courts rejected attorneys' arguments that Brooks, 66, was not mentally competent and that the government hid relevant evidence that could have affected his case. The execution was delayed by more than three hours as attorneys exhausted Brooks' appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution.

The defense argued Brooks was a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered from mental illness long before he shot his 11-, 15- and 17-year-old sons in the head as they slept at their East Cleveland home on a Saturday morning.

Defense attorneys said Brooks believed his co-workers and wife were poisoning him and that he maintained his innocence, offering conspiracy theories about the killings that involved police, his relatives and a look-alike.