USA - Ohio. Frank Spisak, 59, white, was executed

Frank Spisak, 59, white, was executed today at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. Spisak was the last person in Ohio to be lethally injected with sodium thiopental. The state will no longer use the drug because the sole U.S. manufacturer stopped making it. Beginning with the execution of Johnnie Baston on March 10, the state will use pentobarbital, a fast-acting barbiturate that is more readily available. Between February and August of 1982, Spisak shot and killed the Rev. Horace Rickerson, 57; Timothy Sheehan, 50; and Brian Warford, 18. He said he was going on "hunting parties" and hoped to spark a race war in Cleveland. Spisak, who blamed mental illness for his hatred of gays, blacks and Jews, was an admirer of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. He carried a copy of Mein Kampf and grew a Hitler mustache during his 1983 trial. Spisak suffered from bipolar disorder and had a lifelong struggle over his sexual identity. Spisak becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Ohio and the 42nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999. Spisak becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year int he USA and the 1241st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.