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Post by Californian on Aug 29, 2008 8:17:08 GMT -6
Condemned Ohio inmate's murder claim gets examined
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A claim by an Ohio death row inmate that he committed an unsolved murder more than two decades ago will be investigated, a prosecutor said Thursday. Richard Cooey is scheduled to be executed Oct. 14 for killing two University of Akron students in 1986. He told prison employees one day before his scheduled execution in July 2003 that he killed a man who beat up his sister but was never prosecuted for it. Sherri Bevan Walsh, prosecutor for Summit County, said she hadn't known about Cooey's claim until an Associated Press reporter who had viewed corrections documents earlier asked her about it Thursday. She said she has no choice but to ask police to investigate the allegation. "Any time somebody says that they committed a murder, we are going to take that seriously," Walsh said. "We have no way of knowing whether or not Richard Cooey is just blowing smoke and making things up or whether he did in fact did kill somebody else more than 20 years ago." Cooey's attorney Eric Allen said he needs to study the claim before commenting. If executed, Cooey would be the first inmate to be executed in Ohio after the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky's lethal injection procedure last year. Cooey, 41, made the comments about killing a man he described as a hockey player while at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility awaiting his execution the following day, according to documents obtained by the AP. The allegation was not investigated at the time. A federal judge granted Cooey a last-minute reprieve from execution. In a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month, the 267-pound Cooey argued he is too fat to be put to death and that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs. The Ohio Parole Board will announce Tuesday whether it will grant Cooey's request for clemency. The board denied a similar request in 2003. The new investigation has no effect on Cooey's federal lawsuit, said Jim Gravelle, spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Nancy Hardin Rogers. Should Walsh's investigation turn something up and she files new charges, "we would be happy to sit down and talk to her," Gravelle said. tinyurl.com/5m2slw
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Post by Dea on Aug 29, 2008 13:01:02 GMT -6
If they find something to charge him with the crime, wouldn't that just delay his current sentence? Not sure how that works. I know he's appealling, but if he loses the appeal, would they continue with the execution, or stay it for a trial on the new murder charge if they find evidence to prosecute? Just curious.
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Post by HANGMAN1981 on Aug 31, 2008 1:31:52 GMT -6
Reminiscent of Ted Bundy's delaying tactic just prior to his execution.
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Post by rayozz on Aug 31, 2008 2:25:00 GMT -6
Was thinking the same thing. Bundy could have solved quite a few more cold cases, and as for Cooey; who knows.
It must be really difficult for investigators to decide when 'to get it over with'.
Ray
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Post by Elric of Melnibone on Aug 31, 2008 8:13:45 GMT -6
I was thinking a delaying tactic too.
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Post by Shaka on Sept 1, 2008 0:23:28 GMT -6
Even if what this piece of crap says is true, he shouldn't be allowed to dictate the preceedings. They should try execute him, and keep any evidence they have incase he evades the DP on his current charges. Hopefully they could use his current conviction as an aggrivating circumstance and hopefully get another death sentence. The best thing all round is if he does get toasted soon on current charges.
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mst3k4evur
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Post by mst3k4evur on Sept 1, 2008 8:48:02 GMT -6
I have to believe he was just bragging to his jailers and other inmates. Killers do that all the time, especially when all they can brag about is the rape and strangulation of two teenage girls.
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Lady
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I may live in Ohio but my heart belongs to the blue and the gold !
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Post by Lady on Sept 1, 2008 9:04:42 GMT -6
From what I know about Cooey , it is just a delay tactic to save his @ss .My question is ,why wasn't this reported to officials 5 yrs ago when he said it ? They would have 5 yrs to investigate such a claim. It seems strange that just before he is scheduled to be executed again , it comes out about another murder ,once again delaying his execution . This is a man who has done every thing possible to excape execution ,including trying to escape from the prison in 2005 ,when he was still at Manci .
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2008 9:27:57 GMT -6
He could tell them what he knows, if anything, before he is executed. If he is serious about these claims, they could have been there to talk to him by now. No need to delay anything, except in the mind of those who will grasp at anything to block an execution.
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