LUCASVILLE, Ohio, May 24, 2007

Bizarre Execution In Ohio

Killer Laughed And Joked As Executioners Struggled To Find A Vein For Lethal Injection

  • In this undated photo released by Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Christopher J. Newton is shown. Newton was executed on Thursday, May 24, 2007 for killing another inmate. Photo

    In this undated photo released by Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Christopher J. Newton is shown. Newton was executed on Thursday, May 24, 2007 for killing another inmate.  (AP/Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation)

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(AP)  A man was executed Thursday after a delay longer than any other since Ohio resumed executions in 1999 because of problems with the lethal injection, which he had insisted on as punishment for beating and choking a cellmate to death.

Christopher Newton, 37, died at 11:53 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correction Facility, about two hours after the scheduled start of his execution for killing the cellmate after arguing over a chess game.

Newton weighed 265 pounds, according to a physical Wednesday, and prison medical staff struggled to find veins on each arm. The execution team stuck him at least 10 times with needles to get in place the shunts where the needles are injected.

He continued to talk, smile and laugh with the prison staff; sometimes his belly would jiggle. At one point, he was given a bathroom break.

When he eventually was moved from his holding cell and strapped to a table in the death chamber, he made this short statement: "Yes, boy, I could sure go for some beef stew and a chicken bone. That's it."

In a written statement read by public defender Robert Lowe after the execution, Newton apologized to his victim's family. "If I could take it back, I would," the statement said. "To my family, I love you and I'm sorry."

The next-longest delay of an Ohio execution was last May when Joseph Clark died 90 minutes after his scheduled execution time. Prison staff had problems tapping a vein in the longtime-intravenous drug user's arm. Executions typically take about 20 minutes.

A group of Ohio inmates is suing over the state's injection method, saying it is unconstitutionally cruel. Problems with injections have caused delays in other states, including one in Florida in December when an inmate needed a second dose of deadly chemicals, which prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend all executions in the state as a commission examines its lethal injection process.

Newton, who spent much of his adult life in prison, knew killing cellmate Jason Brewer in 2001 was a capital crime and refused to cooperate with investigators unless they sought the death penalty against him, court documents said.

Newton himself even claimed in an interview last month that he had intentionally gotten himself put back in prison by leaving behind a handprint during a 1999 break-in at his father's house.

"He's certainly the epitome of a volunteer," said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for Attorney General Marc Dann.

After the problems with the Clark execution, Ohio announced in June 2006 it would change its lethal injection process to try to prevent such problems in the future.

At the time, prisons director Terry Collins said execution teams would make every effort to find two injection sites and will use a new method to make sure the veins stay open once entryways are inserted.

Newton's delay was exceptionally long and raises new questions about lethal injection, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

"This adds to the concern that lethal injections are too risky and unpredictable, at least under the present protocols," he said. "It's not the swift and sort of painless death lethal injection was advertised to be."

Although his attorneys argued Newton should be spared the death penalty because he had a variety of mental disorders, a court last fall found him competent to forgo his appeals. The prosecution had argued that he had feigned mental illness.

Gov. Ted Strickland said Monday he agreed with the Ohio Parole Board's recommendation against sparing him. The governor had delayed Newton's execution for a few months when he first took office in January to research the case.

Strickland was closely monitoring the situation Thursday morning, including speaking with Collins by phone.

"There was not a cause to intervene," Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said. "Out of an abundance of caution, every precaution was taken before the procedure began to ensure that there would be no problems when the procedure began."

The ACLU of Ohio called on the state to stop executions because of Thursday's problems.

In the interview with reporters last month, Newton said he killed Brewer, 27, because he repeatedly gave up while they were playing chess.

"He kept giving up. Every time I put him in check, he'd give up and want to start a new game," Newton told reporters in April. "And I tried to tell him you never give up ... I just got tired of it."

He had slammed Brewer's head onto the floor, stomped his throat and cut a piece from his orange prison suit to strangle him — then laughed as officers arrived at the cell.

Prosecutors said Newton picked out Brewer as his victim, asking to be placed in protective custody and transferred to his cell, where the two men lived for 30 days before the murder.

Newton first hit Brewer, and said he then had to kill him because he was afraid to be defenseless when he slept. Brewer, about 100 pounds lighter than Newton, was in prison for attempted burglary in Lucas County in northwest Ohio.

He celebrated for the one-year anniversary of Brewer's death, creating a party hat and party blowers, a prison psychiatrist testified.

Newton's family does not want his remains, prison spokeswoman Andrea Dean said, so the state will cremate him and give the ashes to his spiritual adviser.

Brewer's aunt, Rosemary Carter, told the clemency board that she wanted Newton to die. He is a "dark and evil man and is deserving of the verdict put upon him," Carter wrote in a letter.

Newton was the second inmate executed since Strickland took office in January and the 26th since the state resumed executions.


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Add a Comment See all 78 Comments
by gunownerdan May 24, 2007 3:16 PM PDT
Bullets are cheaper and more effective than lethal injection.
BRING BACK THE FIRING SQUAD!
Reply to this comment
by olebd May 24, 2007 3:24 PM PDT
If a man admits guilt, why not just take him out right then and there?
Reply to this comment
by grammawhamma May 24, 2007 3:29 PM PDT
What a sicko. He made a party hat and party blowers to celebrate the one year anniversary of the murder!! I don't believe in the death penalty however since we have it...I guess I don't care if the inmate suffers a little during the process. I am a retired nurse. Obese patients are often hard IV starts and it is not uncommon to have to poke them numerous times. Prisioners on death row have no right to complain about anything!!
Reply to this comment
by processor2 May 24, 2007 3:31 PM PDT
To all liberals upset by the execution of Christopher Newton.

I know how to make you feel better

Don't consider it an execution, instead, just "Visualize" that Chris Newton was a cute little baby, and the only thing Ohio did was perform a late-term abortion.

That should ease your liberal conciousness's.

...
Reply to this comment
by smb221 May 24, 2007 3:39 PM PDT
processor2, I am pro-choice. Why would I be upset about the death penalty or the death of this man and how can you even connect the two together? Your post is completely irrelevant and quite frankly just plain stupid.
Reply to this comment
by pared1 May 24, 2007 3:50 PM PDT
At least he had a sense of humor. LOL
Reply to this comment
by leftcoast196 May 24, 2007 3:55 PM PDT
we kill people to prove that killing is wrong. pretty sensible, huh?
Reply to this comment
by jmbridges2 May 24, 2007 3:57 PM PDT
An eye for an eye not I killed someone and I have a tear in my eye feel sorry for me. I strongly believe in the death penalty and if we were harsher on criminals than maybe we wouldn't have to keep building prisons. JB in KS
Reply to this comment
by jmbridges2 May 24, 2007 3:57 PM PDT
An eye for an eye not I killed someone and I have a tear in my eye feel sorry for me. I strongly believe in the death penalty and if we were harsher on criminals than maybe we wouldn't have to keep building prisons. JB in KS
Reply to this comment
by bobgee_1999 May 24, 2007 4:05 PM PDT
processor2: If you can't grow up, try to at least be original. I don't see anyone here objecting to the guy's execution, so obviously you just save up those little cliches of yours until an appropriate story comes along, so you can validate your sad existence by posting.

So how about this? Next time there's an abortion, you just visualize a liberal, or an Iraqi, or condemned criminal, or the child of an NRA member who was playing with daddy's surrogate manhood and accidently shot himself? That should ease your conservative conscience (which I assume is the word you were struggling to type there at the end).

Mandatory abortion for one generation starting immediately would solve nearly all the world's problems. Unless your family is particularly long-lived.
Reply to this comment
by socrates392 May 24, 2007 4:09 PM PDT
An eye for an eye not I killed someone and I have a tear in my eye feel sorry for me. I strongly believe in the death penalty and if we were harsher on criminals than maybe we wouldn't have to keep building prisons. JB in KS
Posted by jmbridges2 at 03:57 PM : May 24, 2007

Hey jmbridges,

That eye for an eye is pretty good. Isn't that from the OT. FYI: There was this guy called Jesus who preached a message of love and forgiveness. You seem to have forgotten that . . .

What ever happened to love your fellow man? Turn the other cheek? Blessed are the peacemakers? I guess you only listen to the words of Jesus when it suits your purposes. I have trouble imagining Jesus sticking this fat murderer with a needle and sending him to hell just to save some prison space!
Reply to this comment
by gwmyenko May 24, 2007 4:11 PM PDT
I'm from Ohio and it has never been the same since they retired " Old Sparky", the electric chair from the old Ohio State Penn. Of course thereis nothing wrong with the Gas chamber either.
Bring them both back. Or better yet....public executions. Hangings my be a better crime deterent.
Reply to this comment
by tmn May 24, 2007 4:12 PM PDT
He seems like a jolly enough chap from his picture...
Reply to this comment
by mitch0927 May 24, 2007 4:13 PM PDT
I either heard or read somewhere that the only ture humane way to execute someone is to forgive them and tell them they are free to go, when they turn around, put a .45 slug through the back of their head while they are smiling and thinking they are free. One shot, one bullet (about 50 cents) and it is over.
Reply to this comment
by nlm2383 May 24, 2007 4:17 PM PDT
"It's not the swift and sort of painless death lethal injection was advertised to be."

Yes, because someone who slams another persons head onto the floor, stomps on their throat and then strangles them deserves a swift, painless death. What a waste of human being...
Reply to this comment
by nlm2383 May 24, 2007 4:20 PM PDT
Your a moron socrates392...
Reply to this comment
by reel-crazy May 24, 2007 4:24 PM PDT

Checkmate...

Reply to this comment
by nlm2383 May 24, 2007 4:37 PM PDT
haha, checkmate...
Reply to this comment
by kimec4-2009 May 24, 2007 4:43 PM PDT
If he was so anxious to die, why didn't he just off himself?
Reply to this comment
by CBSTV May 24, 2007 4:47 PM PDT
Another dead body is thrown upon the pile. America's culture of death continues to flourish.
Reply to this comment
by suzy4058 May 24, 2007 4:58 PM PDT
I totally agree with being tougher on criminals, regardless of the crime. Public hangings and such were the way we started, and thats the way we need to continue. Just look at the world today compared to 1950, 1960, 1970, and 1980, I believe we have just forgotten all about morals and values.
Reply to this comment
by adian1-2009 May 24, 2007 5:11 PM PDT
Maybe it is that the Ohio potato is good for longevity! It takes longer to die there that in other killing chambers across the nation.
Reply to this comment
by panhandlpete May 24, 2007 5:15 PM PDT
What a wasted effort! Since the military is so short of personnel, why not forfeit the sentences of any prisoner who will go to Iraq and serve? It really isn't as bad as it might sound, since our Congress/Senators want to give amnesty to millions of illegal agliens who have broken LAWS. Not amnesty, some say, for they will have to pay fines.....not true, as only the head of the household will pay the fine while other family members pay processing fees.

For a Christian believer to say they agree with capital punishment proves they are a hypocrite......as this violates the THOU SHALT NOT KILL commandment.

Prisons have become business ventures for states, and the Judicial System has enslaved millions of the lower class via their probation programs where they must make weekly payments......all in this wonderful free country.
Reply to this comment
by vjhahn May 24, 2007 5:25 PM PDT
It's quite sad that Newton's family didn't want his remains to bury him at least.
Reply to this comment
by noview1 May 24, 2007 5:29 PM PDT
I wouldn't want the remains of that worthless creaton.
Reply to this comment
by mikealford3 May 24, 2007 5:34 PM PDT
we kill people to prove that killing is wrong. pretty sensible, huh?
Posted by leftcoast196 at 03:55 PM : May 24, 2007


That is not true leftcoast. We execute and impose punishment on those who commit horrible crimes. There is a distinct difference.
Reply to this comment
by ssporleder May 24, 2007 5:35 PM PDT
"He celebrated for the one-year anniversary of Brewer's death, creating a party hat and party blowers, a prison psychiatrist testified"

It would be difficult to claim this man as "family".
Reply to this comment
by mikealford3 May 24, 2007 5:46 PM PDT
This guy looks like the man who played "Baby Face" in the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou". Seems kinda like he was happy to die.
Reply to this comment
by processor2 May 24, 2007 5:56 PM PDT
To all liberals upset by the execution of Christopher Newton.

I know how to make you feel better

Don't consider it an execution, instead, just "Visualize" that Chris Newton was a cute little baby, and the only thing Ohio did was perform a late-term abortion.

That should ease your liberal conciousness's.

...
Reply to this comment
by jimkun May 24, 2007 5:59 PM PDT
"I totally agree with being tougher on criminals, regardless of the crime. Public hangings and such were the way we started, and thats the way we need to continue. Just look at the world today compared to 1950, 1960, 1970, and 1980, I believe we have just forgotten all about morals and values."

Let's see how many flaws we can find with this logic.
1. Being more tough on criminals will not "restore" the lost morals and values.
2. It's an extremely naive view of the ways things used to be. In the 1950s, there were people being lynched and killed, simply for their color of their skin, not because of any crime they committed. There were laws which made it a crime to have mixed marriages (some of those laws existed into the late 1960s). I am sure they were pedophiles and other horrid crimes back then. It was just that it was easier to keep those secrets hidden.
3. It's also an extremely naive view to not realize the world has greatly changed since back then. International travel was not as frequent as cost compared to one's salary was quite unaffordable. Now, people can cross the oceans for approximately one week's pay. What should we do with progress? Try to prevent it so we can return to our enclosed, protected world?

People like to blame others for problems. Let's quit blaming and let's find solutions to the problems. Of course solutions aren't easy. If they were easy, then we'd all be living in peace and harmony for the last 1000 years.
Reply to this comment
by jn122736 May 24, 2007 6:05 PM PDT
I either heard or read somewhere that the only ture humane way to execute someone is to forgive them and tell them they are free to go, when they turn around, put a .45 slug through the back of their head while they are smiling and thinking they are free. One shot, one bullet (about 50 cents) and it is over.
Posted by mitch0927 at 04:13 PM : May 24, 2007
------------------------------

mitch0927;

I remember reading a story about a man scheduled to be hanged at sunrise. That night, a fellow inmate showed him a tunnel he had recently discovered.

The condemned man entered the tunnel and crawled for a long time and finally, upon seeing light ahead hr experienced a tremendous feeling of relief at his good fortune. He hurriedly exited the tunnel; emerging into the court yard in front of the scaffold where the hangman, and the crowd, were waiting for him.

Would that be considered cruel and unusual punishment?
Reply to this comment
by clarkssuppor May 24, 2007 6:29 PM PDT
For the ACLU to say it does not support capital punishment is hypocrisy, since they support the killing of the unborn. It seems the Pope has a consistency in being against both.
Reply to this comment
by mdc76082 May 24, 2007 6:31 PM PDT
Execution isn't a deterent by any means. It never was meant to be one. It was, the "ultimate" price one was to pay for taking anothers life. You take a life, you give your life. Seems fair to me. I don't see too many murderers killing their victims "humanely".
I think mitch0927 is on to something, but to bad nobody thinks of the burdens the taxpayers endure to keep these pieces of s_hit alive and well fed.
Reply to this comment
by sofi2hot May 24, 2007 6:32 PM PDT
wow. such evil.. i pity the family.
Reply to this comment
by incog-nito May 24, 2007 6:59 PM PDT
As they say, if you can't laugh at your own execution, what can you laugh at?
Reply to this comment
by jacksteen1 May 24, 2007 7:15 PM PDT
Cross-eyed, ignorant Cracker - talking about chicken bones and stew as the family of the man he murdered waits to see him choke on his own black vomit.

Undoubtedly the son of good Republishit Party operatives - home skooled just like his Cracker Daddy !
Reply to this comment
by cpaide May 24, 2007 7:48 PM PDT
processor2, I am pro-choice. Why would I be upset about the death penalty or the death of this man and how can you even connect the two together? Your post is completely irrelevant and quite frankly just plain stupid.

Posted by smb221

Read the post again, you idiot! Who is it to? Not you, since you say you are not upset by the execution. You are way beyond stupid.

To all liberals upset by the execution of Christopher Newton.

I know how to make you feel better

Don't consider it an execution, instead, just "Visualize" that Chris Newton was a cute little baby, and the only thing Ohio did was perform a late-term abortion.

That should ease your liberal conciousness's.

...
Posted by processor2
Reply to this comment
by klingon69 May 24, 2007 8:12 PM PDT
People like to blame others for problems. Let's quit blaming and let's find solutions to the problems. Of course solutions aren't easy. If they were easy, then we'd all be living in peace and harmony for the last 1000 years.
Posted by jimkun at 05:59 PM : May 24, 2007

I think Ohio found a solution for this problem.
Reply to this comment
by agnim May 24, 2007 8:13 PM PDT
Another case of state barbarism carried out ignorant and deluded individuals as lessons in even more teach violence to the already too violent society.
Reply to this comment
by klingon69 May 24, 2007 8:17 PM PDT
Execution isn't a deterent by any means. It never was meant to be one.

Many parents in the West used the public hangings as a ,"see, look what happens to criminals."


Reply to this comment
by lizardbate May 24, 2007 8:19 PM PDT
Why should the execution of a criminal be painless????????????
Their victims went through unbearable pain and suffering. I beleive the criminal should have to endure the same fate as he allowed his victim.
So!!!!!!!! Don't expect my sympathy because they died to slow.
Reply to this comment
by wonderyman-2009 May 24, 2007 8:21 PM PDT
Ever wonder why the average US citizen has approximately 21 times the probability of being murdered than the EU average.
Given a lifespan of 70 years US citizens have +1% chance of dying by murder.
Seems ridiculously liberal gun laws, the death sentence and monstrous prison sentences have the opposite effect of the intended.
I'd hate to think there were other causes?
You really have to ask yourself, "do I feel lucky today?"
Reply to this comment
by klingon69 May 24, 2007 8:21 PM PDT
Undoubtedly the son of good Republishit Party operatives - home skooled just like his Cracker Daddy!
Posted by JackSteen1 at 07:15 PM : May 24, 2007
You know Jackie, some parents want to home-school their children so they are not force-fed the liberal doctrines that seem to be so prevalent in our nations schools.
Home-schooling is a good way to ensure that the child is getting a top-rate education. Many schools teach only what the state has approved, usually whatever they have decidced the child must know in order to pass some standardized test(many states use these).
In reading some of the schoolbooks that are issued today, I see many inconsistancies(sp) with what they say happened and what really happened.
Reply to this comment
by klingon69 May 24, 2007 8:26 PM PDT
PLEASE BRING BACK THE FIRING SQUADS!! So much cheaper, so much quicker and painless!
1 Shot to the head with a bullet the victim's family provided for free!

Posted by patriot75 at 07:52 PM : May 24, 2007

Buit a hanging rope can be used many times, a bullet only once.

We are so focused on the poor gentlemen who sit day after day on death row fighting for their lives.
Posted by peacock at 08:06 PM : May 24, 2007
I don't think I would call a murderer or child-rapist...etc a gentleman, more like scum of the earth.
Reply to this comment
by nothappyatall May 24, 2007 8:34 PM PDT
How is it a veterinarian can euthananize a dog or cat with one injection and the dog is unconscious before the solution is even half injected, yet these human docs seem to have all these problems and need 3 different drugs.
Seems to me they should just get a local veterinarian to do the job right- the FIRST time.
Reply to this comment
by agnim May 24, 2007 9:49 PM PDT
"Seems to me they should just get a local veterinarian to do the job right- the FIRST time.
Posted by newster1 at 08:34 PM : May 24, 2007"

LOL
You are incorrigible. LOL
Reply to this comment
by agnim May 24, 2007 9:56 PM PDT
"Seems to me they should just get a local veterinarian to do the job right- the FIRST time.
Posted by newster1 at 08:34 PM : May 24, 2007"

LOL
You are incorrigible. LOL
Reply to this comment
by mrmattsmom May 24, 2007 10:01 PM PDT
Who gives a hoot about prisoner's rights? They killed an innocent woman in Pinellas Park, Florida because she couldn't feed herself. She wasn't on life support, just had a feeding tube. Starved and dehydrated to death, she was murdered by our judicial system. People have spent years in prison for doing less than that to a dog!Prisoners have absolutely no rights in my book! NONE!
Reply to this comment
by maedean May 24, 2007 10:09 PM PDT
How soon we all forget what these people have done to be in prison in the first place..We send our troops off to war to be killed with no rights at all. Then something like this poor prisoner makes the headlines. *** is wrong with this picture!!!!
Reply to this comment
by mikealford3 May 24, 2007 10:32 PM PDT
It was, the "ultimate" price one was to pay for taking anothers life. You take a life, you give your life. Seems fair to me. Posted by mdc76082 at 06:31 PM : May 24, 2007

I agree, "take a life, give a life". Punishment for murder should be suicide. That way the criminal actually gives his life for his crime. That way people can't call the death penalty "murder" and they can't criticize doctors or prison staff.

As for humane punishment. Perhaps the law is as much for the executioner and the inmate. The arguement of killing the inmate in the way he/she killed is nice to say, but who really could do that? I would think that administering a lethal injection would be easier to do than bashing a man's head on the floor until he is dead.
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