Sentenced to death by lethal injection, death row inmate Richard Cooey is slated for execution 10/14/2008. Cooey will be executed by lethal injection for the brutal rape and killing of two Akron University students in 1986.

Cooey’s lawyers filed a legal brief with the U.S. Court of appeals stating that prison food made him too fat to execute him in a humane manner, citing that his obesity was partially the blame of State food that he ate in prison.

They claimed that his obesity would make it difficult to find a suitable vein to carry out the lethal injection and further, that pills given to him for headaches, could possibly lessen the effects of the anesthetic used during his execution.

Obviously Cooey is grasping at straws now that his date with the executioner draws near. Attorneys for the State of Ohio argued that his claims were invalid since he missed an earlier deadline for the filing of appeals.

When researching this, I ran into some discussion forums and there were some strong lines drawn. Not just about Cooey, but rather, discussions on the moral and ethical system of executions in general. Many people made strong arguments for not taking a human life, regardless of the crime that was committed. The “let him take his medicine” and be executed groups far outweighed the opposition, citing that former death row murderer’s had been released and went right back out and killed again. Suggestions for alternate, humane execution methods for Cooey ran the gamete from a .45 slug in the head, the electric chair (king size model), to the guillotine!

I believe that Cooey will pay for his crimes with his life on October 14th 2008 and that will be that. I suppose we’ll know for sure in about 5 more days, if his pleas catch the attention of a lenient appellate court or not.