July 13
OHIO----impending execution//volunteer
Taft denies clemency for man who killed girlfriend, daughter
Gov. Bob Taft on Monday declined to stop the scheduled execution of a man
who killed his girlfriend and their daughter and stored their bodies in
the couple's refrigerator and freezer for a month before a relative found
them.
Stephen Vrabel, 47, has dropped appeals on his 2 murder convictions and is
scheduled to die by injection on Wednesday.
Taft ordered the Ohio Parole Board to review the case and recommend
whether to change Vrabel's death sentence to life in prison, even though
Vrabel didn't request clemency and his attorneys presented no evidence to
the board.
The board voted 8-0 earlier against recommending clemency earlier this
month.
Vrabel shot Susan Clemente and 3-year-old Lisa Clemente in their heads, on
March 3, 1989, at their northeast Ohio apartment in Struthers with a
handgun the engineering student bought that day. Prosecutors never
established a motive, and Vrabel declined to discuss the killings in a
prison interview on Friday.
Vrabel told police he didn't know why he shot Clemente. He said he shot
their daughter - whom he described Friday as a "perfect child" - because
she was "freaking out" at the sight and he figured killing her was best
because her mother was dead and he was going to jail.
He would be the 13th inmate Ohio has executed since resuming executions in
1999.
The first, Wilford Berry, was called "The Volunteer" because he also
abandoned court appeals to speed his death. Taft has granted clemency
once.
A message seeking comment was left at the Youngstown office of Vrabel's
attorney, John B. Juhasz, who was in court.
(source: Associated Press)
