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October 13, 2008
Supreme Court rejects obese Ohio inmate's appeal
By TERRY KINNEY
Associated Press Writer

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from an Ohio prisoner who argued he is too obese to be executed. Richard Cooey is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday.

The court denied his request for a stay without comment Monday. Cooey is 5-foot-7 and weighs 267 pounds.

State officials said prison staff examined Cooey's veins and found no problems that would interfere with the execution.

Cooey has one more appeal pending before the court. It argues Ohio's method for lethal injections could cause an agonizing death and violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Cooey, 41, raped and killed two college students in 1986.

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Obese man loses
appeal, put to
death in Ohio
    LUCASVILLE, Ohio — The first inmate to die by lethal injection in Ohio in more than a year argued to the end that his obesity would make it difficult for prison staff to find suitable veins in his arms to deliver the deadly chemicals.
    During preparations for his execution Tuesday, Richard Cooey shouted for one of his attorneys as prison staff tried to insert a shunt in his left arm.
    “He was worried that we were on the brink of another botched execution,” said Greg Meyers, an attorney with the Ohio Public Defender’s Office.
    There were no difficulties, said Larry Greene, a spokesman for the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where Cooey was executed for killing two University of Akron students in 1986. His was the first of two executions scheduled Tuesday; an inmate was scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening in Texas.
    Cooey, who stood 5-foot-7 and weighed 267 pounds, said in numerous legal filings that his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane. Problems finding veins on other inmates had delayed previous executions in Ohio. Cooey, who earlier in the day lost a final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, had little to say when offered the chance to make a final statement.

HOW IN THE HELL, can a person be obese in prison?????? Food stamps????? did his sit on his victims?????