Lawrence Reynolds (pictured) died from an overdose this morning -- one legally administered by the state of Ohio.
The convicted killer from Akron, who unsuccessfully tried to take his own life with an overdose of a prescription medication on March 7, was declared dead at 10:27 this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.
The cause of death: a large, intravenous dose of thiopental sodium, a powerful anesthetic.
Reynolds, 43, was convicted and sentenced to death for the Jan. 11, 1994, slaying of 67-year-old Loretta Foster, a widow who was one his neighbors in Cuyahoga Falls, an Akron suburb. Reynolds tried to sexually assault Foster before beating her with a wooden tent pole and strangling her.
Reynolds' suicide attempt and brief hospitalization prompted Gov. Ted Strickland to use his executive clemency power to grant a 1-week reprieve.
Before the execution, Reyolds gave a last statement. He said, "I came in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Erin and Emma will forever and always hold the heart of the lion. To my brothers, I hope they will never have to walk these 15 steps I walk today. I have tried to bring attention to the futility and flagrantly flawed system we have today. Stop the maddness."
At the conclusion of the statement, Patty Solomon, the granddaughter of the victim, said, "Yeah, yeah, stop it now."
He was the 4th person executed -- and the 3rd this year -- using Ohio's 1-drug protocol.
Reynolds is the 36th condemned inmate to be put to death in the state since capital punishment was resumed there in 1999.
Reynolds becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1198th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Sources: Columbus Dispatch, Rick Halperin, March 16, 2010
Ohio: Execution After Suicide Attempt
A death row inmate who tried to kill himself last week by overdosing on pills was executed Tuesday for robbing and strangling his neighbor in 1994. Lawrence Reynolds Jr., 43, was executed by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility nine days after guards found him unconscious in his cell. Ernie Sanders, a spiritual adviser who met with Mr. Reynolds in prison, said he wanted to die alone, not in the death chamber. “He just didn’t want his last act of life to be what he considered to be a sideshow or a circus,” Mr. Sanders said.
Source: AP, March 16, 2010