July 14
OHIO----execution//volunteer
Ohio Executes Man Who Killed Girlfriend
In Lucasville, a man was executed Wednesday after asking to be killed for
shooting his girlfriend and their daughter, then refrigerating their
bodies for a month in their apartment.
Stephen Vrabel, 47, was the 2nd Ohio death row inmate since 1999 to drop
his appeals to speed his execution. He was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m.
at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.
"I'd rather be dead than be alive in prison," Vrabel, who had initially
been found incompetent to stand trial, said in an interview Friday.
Gov. Bob Taft on Monday declined to stop Vrabel's scheduled execution. The
Ohio Parole Board had voted earlier against recommending clemency.
Vrabel shot Susan Clemente, 29, his girlfriend of about 4 years, and their
daughter, 3-year-old Lisa Clemente, in March 1989 at their apartment in
the Youngstown suburb of Struthers.
Vrabel never said why he shot Susan Clemente. He said he shot their
daughter - whom he described as a "perfect child" - in part because she
was "freaking out" about her mother's death.
After the shootings, Vrabel placed Clemente's body in the refrigerator and
Lisa's in the freezer along with her favorite stuffed animals.
A relative of Clemente's found the bodies after about a month when he went
to the apartment to collect overdue rent. Vrabel confessed to a priest and
then to police.
After being deemed incompetent to stand trial, Vrabel spent 5 years at a
psychiatric center. Vrabel was then ruled competent to stand trial in 1995
and was convicted of 2 counts of aggravated murder. Vrabel's attorneys had
tried unsuccessfully to show that he was insane, and his appeal had
centered in part on whether he was competent to stand trial.
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld Vrabel's death sentence by a 4-3 vote last
year.
Vrabel becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Ohio, and the 13th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in
1999.
Vrabel becomes the 33rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 918th overall since America resumed executions on January
17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
