Ohio had its first execution in over thirty-five years...

Ohio had its first execution in over thirty-five years when Wilford Berry Jr. was executed on February 19. Berry, 36, received a lethal injection in both arms at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution. When the official witnesses were brought in at 9:24 p.m., he appeared calm. His lips moved, but he said nothing audible. Five minutes later his breathing noticeably slowed, and his face grew pale. He was pronounced dead at 9:31 p.m., 6 minutes after the deadly drugs entered his body. But the carefully controlled execution procedure prevented official witnesses from seeing the trouble executioners had in administering the lethal injection. A problem inserting an injection needle into Berry's right arm delayed the execution for more than twenty minutes, a state prison spokesman said. Berry had waived his appeals and fired the attorneys who were trying to prevent his execution. There was considerable evidence that he was suffering from severe mental illness. His problems dated back to age 9, when he first tried to commit suicide after being raped and abused by his baby sitter's family. He was tormented by physical problems, subjected to severe punishment by his mother, and abandoned by a father who later died in a mental hospital. As a teenager and as an adult, Berry was raped and beaten in prison.Dozens of people huddled in the cold on a grassy field a few hundred feet away from the maze of barbed wire and razor wire that surrounds the 27-year-old prison. Death penalty backers were outnumbered by opponents, who held candles during prayer vigils and sang, "Killing is not the way to healing."Pope John Paul II and some state legislators made separate appeals to Gov. Bob Taft to spare the life of Berry, known as "The Volunteer" because he wanted to be executed. "His Holiness counts on your right to spare a life by a gesture of mercy that would hopefully contribute to the promotion of nonviolence in today's society," Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the Pope's envoy to the United States, said in a letter to Taft. Sen. Mark Mallory, D-Cincinnati, and nine other lawmakers also asked Taft to spare Berry's life. All but one of the anti-death penalty lawmakers were Democrats.