Bizarre Execution In Ohio

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

(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.

[mike_hunt5]

"Just one less loser I have to support in prison...."
Posted by wuki524

Actually after you factor in the costs that the state has incur to pay both prosecutor and usually the state appointed lawyer for the defendant. As well as the almost free labor (prison labor usually costs $1 to $2 an hour) that prisoners provide, it's cheaper to keep them alive and have them serve life in prison.

[brianbwb-2009]

To shortyinmo,
Poverty is never an excuse for murder, and certainly not germane to the case in the lead story here, but it is very often the environment where some people will do anything to survive, I've been there also, in 70s and 80s Detroit, where jobs were all but non-existant, winter was deadly, politicians and churches were blind, deaf, and dumb on the matter, too busy decrying and dismantling any public assistance that they termed the "welfare state" in order to garner support of the ignorant rich. It was cheaper to get a gun than a warm coat and a meal, where selling drugs is one of the few options for earning your next meal, where for many, jail was a "step up" from their reality. I was lucky enough than I never found myself in a "kill or be killed" circumstance, but I lost a few friends that were. Poverty is indeed the motivator for crimes of all sorts, the callous will ask "why do you stay there?", as if we all have the wherewithal to relocate, when we don't even have a decent pair of shoes to walk away in. They will also say "get a job" as if the thousands of previously employed could create a job from nothingness. I knew Master's degree holders glad to be working at Mc Donald's, there was simply no work to be had.
The theme I joked about was also explored in "The Running Man", "Freejack" and a few other minor pictures, My angle was to put truly deserving people in the contest, rather than presumably innocent protagonists.

[wuki524]

Just one less loser I have to support in prison....

[mike_hunt5]

Just another case of letting the state murder a mentally incompetent man. While Republicans who respect the "culture of life" celebrate his death and Democrats who are against the death penalty continue to support the murder of innocent babies. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

[robjk1-2009]

I've seen patients in the hospital get stuck that many times to get a IV. Some are just harder sticks, what's the big deal.

[fedora1958]

processor2, not all those who oppose capital punishment are pro-choice liberals. You must know that the Catholic Church opposes capital punishment as well as abortion.

[caitlinndad]

Maybe these botched executions are just Gods way of justifying our actions !

[jsmithcsa]

I hope I'm not supposed to feel pity for this murderer. I don't care if it takes 2 hours to kill him. He doesn't appear to have been discomfited that it took longer than expected -- I sure as heck am not.

YIKES!!! Me no want prison.

[shortyinmo]

For brianbwb 1.) your idea for a show was already a WWE movie called The Condemend and was on at the theaters here not that long ago. So there goes that idea... 2.) Don't let poverty be an excuse for crime. There are alot of people who have lived in poverty (including myself) who have never committed a crime. It is your personal morals that keep you from lying, stealing, killing. This man killed another person, let's also not forget he was already in prison when he killed that person so what does that say about him? Some people are just bad/evil whatever so don't turn it into some rich/poor debate when it isn't.

As for the death penalty I guess it would be easier to just keep building prison after prison after prison that execute anyone. Well, that must be where this country is headed because no one is responsible anymore for what they do, it is always someone else's fault or what ever. GIVE ME A BREAK

[ov442]

Nah, Execution wouldnt be much of a penalty for those souless dogs. Take all their assets and their immediate family assets away, distribute evenly to employees (or former) of the company they robbed, and set a Law to prevent them from ever being able to work for anything other than Minimum wage the rest of their lives.

[brianbwb-2009]

and to all, the death penalty as it is currently applied does not deter the worst of crimes, since it is not applied to the corrupt politicians and businessmen, who so rob the economy that some of the murders committed are poverty driven. Lets also go after the Enrons and the wall street thieves, and anyone whose financial corruption is greater than or equal to equal to a full coverage life insurance payout for one person's murder.

[brianbwb-2009]

And to the networks, it was my idea first, I reserve all content and publishing copyrights, we can negotiate, just call my agent...

[ov442]

Yeah, i dont agree with the rotten lying hypocritical hate filled sack of *** republicans, on most issues. But one thing i dont like is the ACLU's "humane treatment" of people who have committed so foul of crimes that they are being put to death.
Just shoot em in the forehead, cremate them, and hand their families the ashes, or put them in the dump. They dont deserve any dignity, honor or perks at our expense as taxpayers.
Thats another thing.
We need to cut down the time and appeals and costs of incarcerating known criminals.
It costs more to house a prisoner for a year than i make being an honest citizen working hard at a technical job that requires a degree.

[brianbwb-2009]

To itwasntme000, I like the pay-per-view angle, but you have to get the cameras close enough to get all the gory details. As for Bush, one pay per view wouldn't generate enough to cover all the victims' families, unless you go world-wide, and do it two at a time, first Rice, and Powell, then Wolfie and Schultz, then Cheney and Novak, with Bush and his love doll bin Laden as the season finale.

[processor2]

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 concious's.

...

[processor2]

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 concious's.

...

[itwasntme000]

brianbwb Or make it a pay per view and give some money to the victum of the murders family. Heck lets let bush and his administration star in the first season. Its bound to be a hit. We could even empty out the iraq prisons and throw them on an island with bush and his crones.

knyghtwolf umm that is a horrible idea. sounds painfull. Why not bring back the guillotine?? or the firing squad... or if the victums family chooses 3 baseball bats and 5 minutes.

[mikealford3]

Here's a morbidly humorous idea, put the real death row inmates on an island, far from any other land, surrounded by sharks. Air drop almost enough food to live for each week. Put TV cameras everywhere, hire Don Imus to be color commentator, you will have a guaranteed ratings monster, probably forever. Hell, even I'd watch occasionally...
Posted by brianbwb at 02:10 AM : May 25, 2007

This would fit just fine with the CBS current lineup of crime and reality shows. I mean the highest rated shows are those where the person who cheats, lies, manipulates and steals are the winner. Survivor and now the Pirate Master, advertise the cheating and stealing and manipulating to win.

I'm all for dumping the death row inmates on an island, let's call that island Mars just for kicks.

[fedora1958]

The reality is that court costs make capital punishment vastly more expensive than life in prison. That's a mathematical fact; look it up.