Inmate Richard Cooey, who was convicted of killing two college students in 1986 and is scheduled to be executed, has asked for clemency due to his obesity. Cooey claims that his obesity will prevent him from being properly executed by lethal injection, due to the difficulty of finding a vein. He also claims that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs. Cooey stands 5 feet 7 and weighs 267 pounds.
Cooey made a similar request in 2003, which the Ohio Parole Board denied. Cooey came within a day of being executed that year before a federal judge issued a reprieve. If his execution proceeds as scheduled on October 14, 2008, it will be the first execution in Ohio since the end of a moratorium while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-25-death-row_N.htm
Tags: Cooey, lethal injection, obesity
